HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Hot weather at the beginning of the summer ate into the numbers for the Hutchinson USD 308 summer lunch program.

Although exact numbers won’t be released for some time, it appears the number of meals served during the summer will be around 20,000. That’s down from the 24,852 meals served to children and adults last year.

The total last year was an all-time high, beating 2016’s total of 22,648 meals and 21,703 in 2015.

Jennifer Tatro, who heads up the program, says the extremely hot weather early in the summer kept a lot of children out of the parks where two of the meal sites were located.