Free Until 6:30, Dinner Included: Inside Polk's Boys & Girls Clubs as Lakeland Kids Head Back to Class

With more than 116,400 Polk County students back in class, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Polk County is running free after-school programming for at least 7,000 of them at 11 locations, including three long-standing clubs in Lakeland and a new one that opened on the IDEA Lakeland campus Aug. 24. Kids get homework help from tutors and certified teachers, a hot dinner served family-style, and a pickup window between 6 and 6:30 p.m. There is no fee, which for a working Lakeland parent replaces a private after-school bill that commonly runs into the hundreds of dollars a month per child.

President and CEO Steve Giordano said the clubs bridge the gap between the last bell and the end of a work shift, adding academic support, exercise, mentorship and a meal.

The daily rhythm is a rotation: structured academic time, then enrichment, then dinner. Programming is built around six areas, including academics, health and wellness, sports, the arts, character development and workforce readiness. Unit leaders run their own projects on site, from community gardens to scout troops.

The meal is the part parents notice

Dinners are paid for with a USDA grant. Vice President of Operations John Lane said four sites cook on site and a central kitchen delivers to the rest in hot containers, where food program staff portion it out family-style and check off every child.

That matters in a county where, according to combined figures from United For ALICE and the United Community Indicators, 61% of households face financial hardship and more than 20% struggle with food insecurity.

Money from the United Way of Central Florida and Polk County's voter-approved half-cent indigent care sales tax pays for five dedicated mental health counselors and sensory rooms for neurodivergent students.

Where the Lakeland clubs are

Three Lakeland units draw students from nearby elementary and middle schools, with buses running from campuses to the clubs. Busing 7,000 kids countywide costs the organization roughly $500,000 a year, which is why the group is pushing to put programs directly on school campuses instead. IDEA Lakeland, at 1775 Interstate Drive, is the newest of those partnerships, and the school has said the on-campus program is open at no cost to as many as 150 students.

Lakeland club	Where to call
James J. Musso Unit	950 Pinewood Ave. / (863) 683-3371
John L. Sanders Unit	1525 Martin L. King Jr. Ave. / (863) 686-0721
Weinstein Family Unit	920 Lowry Ave. / (863) 665-3864

Teens, trades and a pizza shop

High school attendance is the hard part everywhere, so the clubs lean on career training. Teens go through required soft-skills work covering resumes, interview prep and workplace etiquette. From there, the tracks split.

• Skilled trades: plumbing, electrical, carpentry and HVAC taught in dedicated training space with local business partners, chosen because the work cannot be automated away.
• Creative and enterprise: in-house podcast and audio recording studios plus a T-shirt printing press.
• After graduation: club-funded scholarships that help seniors enroll in post-secondary programs, including vocational tracks at Traviss Technical College and Ridge Technical College.

The newest venture is a pizza business the teens run themselves. Giordano said Next Gen Pizza will sell to parents online out of the central kitchen, with delivery through a third-party app down the road, so students learn cost of goods, margins, delivery fees and payroll along with how to make the pie.

Free, but not a drop-off service

Enrollment carries real conditions. Families are briefed at parent orientations on mandatory attendance and pickup rules, the point being that a child who leaves at 3:30 gets none of the tutoring, mentoring or dinner. Lane put it bluntly: the requirements exist because the clubs serve the kids who need them most, and those kids are there every day.

Timing is the catch for anyone hearing about this now. Registration opens over the summer, returning members get priority, and most units hit capacity before the first day of school. Parents who want a spot should call the closest unit directly to ask about openings or a waitlist, or check the organization's after-school program page for registration steps. The main office line is (863) 686-1719.

For more on schools, child care and family life around town, visit Lakeland Community Website and read more education stories at our education section or our community coverage. If your kids are enrolled at a Lakeland club, or you are trying to get them in, join the conversation in our Community Forum.