Lunch Club

About the program

The Lunch Club evolved from a previously implemented summer camp uniting at-risk middle school students from various Boston neighborhoods with both School Safety Officers and Boston Police Officers. The aim of the summer camp was to build positive relationships between the city’s youth and law enforcement officers in an attempt to provide these adolescents with support and guidance. The positive influences of forming a mentoring relationship with a law enforcement officer was intended to help these teenagers consider the consequences of their actions and to encourage them to make positive decisions.

During the 2002-2003 school year, the program expanded to incorporate weekly lunch meetings within the school where the relationship between the students and the School Safety Officer could further develop. These meetings offer the students an opportunity to discuss issues of importance as they struggle with the challenges of growing up in an urban environment and are faced with many difficult decisions.

The meetings provide the students with an invaluable venue to discuss problems, concerns, and opinions associated with adolescent life in an urban environment. The students have the opportunity to express themselves in a safe and supportive forum where they can learn from each other and the school police officer. They help build positive relationships among themselves, as well as, a positive relationship with a law enforcement member.

Periodically throughout the year, all of the three school lunch groups go on a variety of trips to foster civic engagement, experience aspects of Boston outside the school setting, and expose them to new cultural information and ideas. The trips and events allowed the students to interact with one another outside of the typical lunch hour and gave them opportunities that they wouldn’t ordinarily get without their involvement in this program.

Some of the trips included the Museum of African American History, tour of WBZ Channel 4 and WB56, recreational trips to Boston Bowl and free movie tickets to Loews Cinemas, attending a Boston Celtics game, attending a New England Revolution soccer game, and a brunch sponsored by the Boston Bruins Foundation. In the past, a Red Sox/Aramark sponsored luncheon at Fenway Park and New England Patriots sponsored luncheon at Gillette Stadium.