All six children left in Laverne Randall's care receive a nightly buffet.
By the time she picks the kids up from a summer program, they have already eaten. When Randall arrives at her home a block away, she has another hot meal ready on the stove.
"I cook every day. They eat [at the center], then they go to my house and eat," said Randall, who watches the kids during the evening before their parents pick them up.
But not all of the other 35 elementary school-age children who take part in the Pimlico Road Summer Youth Program are as fortunate. Workers at the Northwest Baltimore center say at least half the students have come to depend on the sponsored meals to tide them over for the evening, food that serves as a substitute for the free lunches the children receive during the school year.
With school out, state and federal officials say about 25 percent of the 328,000 low-income Maryland children who received free school meals during the year got them last summer. The numbers, however, are on the rise.
According to a report released Wednesday by the Food Research and Action Center, the number of Maryland kids who were fed last summer were about 17 percent higher than in 2008. Child welfare advocates say those numbers should increase this year, thanks to the addition of dinners to the meal plan that originally offered breakfast and lunch.
The meals are offered at summer camps, recreation centers, schools and churches at more than 700 places in the state.
The Family League of Baltimore City sponsors dinner at the Pimlico center and 32 other sites in the city. Although they do not have final participation totals this summer, Kaleisha Biggs, a contract manager for the nonprofit, said the extra meals could only help serve to feed more kids.
"Now that they get breakfast, lunch and supper, we get a sense that the participation rate has gone up," Biggs said.
Donna Dean, director at the Pimlico center, said her program moved to a smaller building from the one used last summer and can accommodate only about 50 students, half of what it handled before.
But the intimate setting and addition of dinner allows workers and volunteers to teach a new life lesson — table manners.
"If one person puts their elbow on the table, everybody screams, 'Get it up,' " Dean said. She added that the meals are a lifesaver for most of the children she sees on a daily basis.
"At least half of my children would not have a meal when they got home," she said. "First of all, their parents aren't home, and somebody else is picking them up. Some of them walk home. I know for a fact that they would not have a meal if they did not eat here."
Maryland's summer nutrition participation rate ranks 10th nationally, according to the FRAC report based on the 2009 numbers. FRAC works with hundreds of national, state and local agencies to formulate polices addressing hunger and poverty.
The state qualified for $5 million in federal funding for the summer program. State officials have dedicated some of the money this year to advertising the free meals after adding more than 70 licensed facilities that now provide the daily meals and snacks.
Two years ago, state officials announced a partnership with Share our Strength, a national nonprofit, to end childhood hunger by 2015. Gov. Martin O'Malley said at the time that he wanted to add 49,000 children to the summer meals program.
"It's an access issue; too many kids not accessing existing programs," said Bill Shore, executive director of Share our Strength. "There are a number of things we've focused on really having to do with access to outreach. Postcards on backpacks, posters on buses and 40 different radio stations in Maryland are now running public service announcements."
Dean said adding the dinners, which include vegetables and a meat, such as Salisbury steak or turkey, should help increase participation rates, once parents and guardians become more aware of the program.
Randall said that those who are aware of the meals praise them.
"They love it," she said. "And a lot of children, their manners are much better now, their attitudes are much better."