Free Lunch Academy

Free Lunch Academy was founded in October of 2012 by Executive Director, Calvin King, who sought to provide students in Chicago with the necessary tools to safely mediate the occurrence of violence and bullying that is too often experienced in today's classrooms. This father of two is passionate about promoting inclusive learning environments for all children through the use of artistic expression. Free Lunch Academy reaches this objective by partnering with schools throughout the Chicagoland area and beyond to provide their students with a combination of live stage performances, programming and workshops known affectionately as, “The Free Lunch Academy Experience”

Free Lunch Academy offers various educational services to schools, churches, libraries, park districts, and community organizations. All the offered services have a specific focus on anti-bullying techniques and designed curriculum to empower students. Free Lunch Academy provides after school programming, bullying prevention stage plays, in school workshops, after school programing and professional development for parents and educators. Bullying has become a major issue within the United States and Free Lunch Academy strives to mediate the issue and “edutain” students. department of Justice released data stating more than 160,000 kids stay home from school each day to avoid being bullied. Most importantly, bullying stops within 10 seconds 57% of the time when bystanders intervene. All these statistical numbers show that an comprehensive awareness, prevention and intervention based program such as Free Lunch Academy is not only wanted, but it is very much needed.