Schools’ Summer Feeding Program underway

By Aubrey Kimble | The Winchester Sun
Photos by Randy Patrick | WinCity Voices

Families of chil­dren ages 18 and under are able to pick up a free 10-day meal kit through the Clark County Public Schools Summer Feeding Program run­ning through the end of July.

Jennifer Muncy, direc­tor of food ser­vices for the school dis­trict, said the meal kits are avail­able to any fam­i­ly — not just the Clark County Public Schools families.

“We oper­ate school and com­mu­ni­ty nutri­tion, 100 per­cent on fed­er­al grants. We do not oper­ate on the school gen­er­al fund,” said Muncy. “With this par­tic­u­lar grant, I’m allowed to feed all chil­dren 18 and under. And they do not have to be a Clark County Public School student.”

Muncy explained that school and com­mu­ni­ty nutri­tion is fund­ed by fed­er­al grants from the United States Department of Agriculture. She said that each type of meal they could give is on a sep­a­rate grant. Breakfast, lunch, and even snacks are on dif­fer­ent grants from one another.

“Summer feed­ing has become a statewide ini­tia­tive over the last few years,” said Muncy. “Especially since COVID, and with the data we cur­rent­ly have…20 per­cent of stu­dents across the state are food inse­cure in the summer.”

Muncy also explained why she believes there is a sig­nif­i­cant need for these meal kits, both at the state lev­el and across the Clark County community.

“I would say that with our … cur­rent econ­o­my — between the ris­ing price of food costs, plus this year…the ris­ing price of fuel costs — I think this pro­gram is extreme­ly ben­e­fi­cial to all (eco­nom­ic) class­es. And that’s one of the things I like about it.”

“Students who receive ben­e­fits con­tin­ue to receive ben­e­fits in the sum­mer, and many peo­ple may not real­ize that,” said Muncy. “There is a sum­mer EBT pro­gram that they still receive ben­e­fits … and they can come get these meals. But you also have your work­ing-class fam­i­lies who some­times are in the mid­dle, and maybe they feel for­got­ten, but this pro­gram is open to them as well.”

Muncy said the pro­gram has already grown from last sum­mer, and she hopes to find ways to expand in the future while still fol­low­ing the spe­cif­ic guide­lines set out in the grant.

“I would like to see it grow, and we are,” said Muncy. “Last year, we gave out, for every stu­dent, they received a sev­en-day meal. They received sev­en break­fasts and sev­en lunch­es. And this year we’re doing 10-day kits. So they’re receiv­ing 10 break­fasts and 10 lunch­es …. It is a fed­er­al guide­line that I can’t give out more than 10.”

Muncy explained that these guide­lines also go into how many total kits they are allowed to give out. She said that this year, they are locat­ed at one school and two alter­na­tive sites. Muncy said mov­ing for­ward, she would love to open a loca­tion at a sec­ond school, but she would have to move oth­er meal kits, like those they pro­vide at school sum­mer camps, to fol­low the regulation.

Muncy said that on the June 2 hand­out day, 1,000 stu­dents received their meal kits. She said there were so many fam­i­lies that they ran out of meal kits.

“That was the most heart­break­ing thing,” Muncy said. “So we have a lim­it­ed num­ber that we apply … a fed­er­al appli­ca­tion [for]. It’s a grant; we have rules. We ran out of meals. [In] an hour and a half, we gave out 1,000 10-day kits …. The num­ber of peo­ple we were hav­ing to turn around and tell them that we were so sor­ry, you know that hurts us because we want to feed chil­dren. We’re in this busi­ness to feed children.”

Muncy said she has since applied to increase the order to 1,250 kits.

She also men­tioned that she likes to include an “extra” incen­tive in each meal kit, in addi­tion to the 10 break­fasts and 10 lunches.

“We’re going to try to do incen­tives, so each week we’re hop­ing to have some­thing that’s an extra that’s not part of the actu­al meal that we get reim­bursed for. So we’re actu­al­ly pay­ing for that out of our bud­get,” said Muncy.

Right now, Muncy said she was giv­ing out half-gal­lons of choco­late milk and that she has also been giv­ing out pop­si­cles. She also men­tioned some oth­er options they are look­ing into for the future, such as water­mel­on, eggs, and bread.

“We’d like to give some­thing a lit­tle extra, just as an incen­tive …we need them to stick with us and, if they can, to try to come all six times. We do not get reim­bursed unless a stu­dent picks a meal up. That’s impor­tant to note,” said Muncy. “We appre­ci­ate their sup­port, and we need their support.”

The meal kits are avail­able for pick­up at Conkwright Elementary from 11 to 1, which is the only dri­ve-through loca­tion offered. They are also avail­able at the Quick Shop/La Princesa area from 11 to 11:30 and the Clark County Public Library from 11:45 to 12:45, but you must get out of your vehi­cle to receive your meal kit at those sites.

The meal kits are being dis­trib­uted on the fol­low­ing days: June 22, July 9, July 20, and July 30. These are open sites; meals can­not be served after the end time unless you are already in line. There is a lim­it­ed num­ber of meals avail­able at each site.