Summer program is model for free meals
The Big Red Picnic Program began as a way to help make sure Souderton Area School District students have enough to eat while classes are out for the summer.
Now it’s being used as the model for the district to keep providing student meals while schools are closed for the COVID-19 pandemic.
The grab and go meals include a lunch and a breakfast, Chris
topher Hey, the district’s assistant superintendent and director of human resources, said.
“When you pick up the meal, you get both,” he said. “You get lunch for that day and breakfast for the next day.”
On the first day, Wednesday, March 18, about 100 meals were picked up, he
said. That was followed by about 200 on Thursday, March 19 and about 225 on Friday, March 20.
With hundreds of families in the school district relying on free or reduced price meals during the school year, those numbers are less than was expected, he said.
“We honestly expected more, and, who knows, as next week rolls out and things change in people’s lives and there’s further restrictions on travel and businesses which are open and so forth, then we could get more, so we’re basically responding to the demand in the moment,” Hey said during a March 20 telephone interview.
The meals can be picked up at four of the district’s schools — E.M.C., Oak Ridge and West Broad Street elementaries and Indian Crest Middle School. Pick up times are 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Meals initially were also available at Vernfield Elementary School, but only a handful were picked up there, so that location was being dropped as of Monday March 23, Hey said. As of that date, the initial five day a week schedule was also being changed to three days — Monday, Wednesday and Friday, he said.
“The menu does change a little bit every day, so there’s a variety of items, but generally it’s a main menu item like a sandwich or a hoagie and then a side item like carrot sticks or apple slices or chips and then usually a piece of fruit or a cookie,” Hey said. “Breakfast is generally cold cereal and breakfast bars.”
District food service and security personnel are staffing the pick up locations, he said.
District information says the meals are available for all children 18 and younger.
“We are not turning anyone
away, but it’s intended for those families in the free and reduced lunch program. If there are other families that have food insecurity, they’re welcome to pick up meals as well,” Hey said.
Remaining donations to the Big Red Picnic Program are being used to help fund the meals, he said. The district has also applied for and is waiting for an answer on whether there will be federal funding for it, he said.
A “Ways to Help” page under the school district’s “Food Services During School Closure” page on the district website includes information on donating to programs helping provide meals during the school closure.
In addition to the Big Red Picnic Program, the Bean Bag Program, Keystone Opportunity Center, Emmanuel Lutheran Church and
Shepherd’s Shelf are listed.
“We’re happy to be able to continue to provide this service for our families who rely on our schools for
meals for their children,”
Hey said.
“We have a strong and vibrant community here in the Indian Valley and I know that we will get through this crisis together. I am so proud of our families, our students, our entire staff, and our community
members. Although there are many unknowns, we are very fortunate to have such a caring community and we will come out of this even stronger,” Superintendent Frank Gallagher wrote in a March 18 coronavirus update on the district’s website.