BY SYDNEY HOOVER
Eudora Schools students will receive free breakfasts and lunches through the end of the fall semester, thanks to the extension of a federal Food and Nutrition Services program.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture offered the Summer Food Service Program, a waiver to provide children with free meals throughout school closures due to the coronavirus. Now, USDA’s Food and Nutrition Services has extended that funding for free meals through the end of 2020 or until funds run out.
“The families, they don't have to worry about paying for anything, so they can take that money that they generally would spend on meals and use it towards bills,” said Eudora Schools Food and Nutrition Services Director Sharla Miller.
The Eudora School District typically would not qualify for summer food programs such as this because it does not have the levels of free and reduced meal applications to qualify, Miller said. Because of the pandemic, though, Food and Nutrition Services opened the program up for any school to offer free meals.
The pool of money for the national program is expected to last through the end of 2020 to serve schools across the nation, but Miller said should that funding run out, the district would be notified ahead of time. Miller said families in need of free or reduced meals should still fill out the waiver to request that service in case funding does run out, and so they can still qualify for those meals in the spring.
Nicole Parks, Eudora High School kitchen manager, said she’s seen the funding take pressure off families to send lunches to school with their children since the school year started.
“I think it really helps,” Parks said. “We've had a lot of kids that don't usually eat that are eating. I've been here five years, and I've seen some kids that this is the first time I've seen them in the kitchen, and I know they're seniors.”
The toughest adjustment to make for the food and nutrition services at the schools is preparing meals for hybrid days, when it’s hard to guess how many students they will be serving, middle school kitchen manager Barb Spring said. She said ordering food and knowing how much to prepare can be difficult, but so far it has gone smoothly.
“It's kind of a guessing game,” Spring said. “You just try a number and hopefully it works out, which it has worked out here for our school. We haven't, you know, ran out of anything.”
At the middle and high school, students can’t choose what they want buffet style like normal. Instead, kitchen staff serve everything to them. Parks said a lot of students at the high school have been disappointed to lose the salad bar due to safety precautions.
At the elementary school, each meal is individually pre-packaged for the students to eat in their classrooms.
Should schools move to remote learning at some point during the semester, Miller said the schools will continue serving breakfasts and lunches from the three buildings for students to pick up. The federal meal funding will end Dec. 31.
Reach reporter Sydney Hoover at eudoratimes@gmail.com.
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