HOPKINTON— For some kids who receive free and reduced price lunch at school, the mid-day meal may be all they’ll have to eat all day, and that means that in the summer or on school vacation weeks, those kids may go hungry.

But a collaboration of schools, churches and community organizations in Hopkinton is working to bridge that gap and over the summer delivered 900 meals to kids in town, and they want to do more.

The Hopkinton Got Lunch! program was borrowed from a similar program established in Laconia in 2011, according to Superintendent Steve Chamberlin during a joint meeting of the school board and selectmen Monday night.

The Laconia Got Lunch! effort was launched by a community outreach organization called Better Together that recognized that nearly two-thirds of Laconia’s students were eligible for free or reduced lunch, but may not have been receiving nourishment when school was in session, said organizer Paula Gile. The group got together and collected donated food and delivered it to kids over the summer.

“In the first summer (2011) we delivered healthy groceries to 314 children for the entire summer,” said Gile. “This past summer, year two, we delivered healthy groceries to 468 children.”

Following Laconia’s lead, Hopkinton got on board this year and through a collaboration with St. Andrew Parish, the Rotary Club and the town’s human services director, were able to reach 17 students and deliver 900 meals for around $1,400.

“Most of the food was donated,” said Chamberlin, “and volunteers delivered the food once a week.”

But Chamberlin said only a fraction of the kids who qualify for federal assistance through the school are getting it.

“We know we have 80 students in town who are eligible for free or reduced lunch, but we don’t know who they are because of privacy laws,” Chamberlin said. “Even the superintendent doesn’t know who qualifies for free or reduced lunch.”

So finding those in need has been a challenge, but otherwise, the program has been successful and is in a position to grow. Chamberlin said the next step is to try and cover kids over school vacations, especially in February and April when resources can be especially sparse.

School board member Matthew Cairns also pointed out that weekends can be tough for kids to get enough food, and suggested that sending students home with nourishment for the weekend might be a good direction for the program.

Chamberlin also said the group may start looking at delivering meals to seniors, but stressed that the continued support of the community, from volunteers to individuals to business owners, would be needed to keep the program going.

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Nancy Bean Foster may be reached at nfoster@newstote.com.