They say there’s no rest for the weary, and that’s especially true if you’re a school nutritionist these days. While others take off for the summer, these hardworking employees volunteer to stay behind, preparing thousands of meals to make sure kids and teens don’t go hungry.
In Habersham County, 20 staffers helped with this year’s summer nutrition program. Over a six-week period that ended on July 20, they prepared 57,077 meals. They fed approximately 1,000 children at least one, sometimes two meals daily and served up a total of 27,158 breakfasts and 29,919 lunches.
A growing program
This free, federally-funded, state-administered nutrition program is open to children aged 18 and under. Participants don’t have to register. The nutrition staff relies on historical data from the prior year to prepare the number of meals needed.
“It is truly a guess as we do not ask them (students) to sign up,” says Habersham County School Nutrition Director Andrea Thomas. “The bus drivers give us good feedback from the sites, and we adjust accordingly.”
Those bus drivers and bus monitors – 15 of them this year – are also an integral part of the program.
They deliver the meals four days a week, making sure they get to the right place on time. This year they delivered to 14 sites around Habersham County, including a mobile home park, subdivision, apartment complex, church, library, schools, and the Boys & Girls Club. Their deliveries stretch from one end of the county to the other – from The River Church in Alto to Woodville Elementary School north of Clarkesville.
Thomas says the program has grown a lot in recent years.
“We are serving more meals now and servicing more programs – Pre-K at Cornelia, Credit Recovery and ESOL at the high schools, and the Boys and Girls Club.”
Serving meals and the community
Workers sign up for the summer program toward the end of each school year. While they get paid, Nutrition System Manager Jo Ann Greenway says they “do it for the kids.”
She adds that the ladies who do this each year come from different schools within the district and “compare” notes on how they prepare meals at their schools. All the volunteers have an inherent camaraderie as a group and truly care about one another, Greenway says.
Meals are prepared as though school was in session and follow the same state and federal guidelines. Lunches are served hot, and drinks are served cold, just like a regular school day.
Volunteers prepare the summer meals at Cornelia and Demorest Elementary schools. The Cornelia team provides meals for the south end of the county, while volunteers at Demorest prepare meals for the central part and north end of the county.
Between the meal preparation and deliveries, Greenway says, “It takes a village of people to make it happen.”
Thomas says the summer staff loves to have fun and works well together. They also have one other important thing in common: “They are dedicated and passionate about feeding kids.”
And it’s not just those under 18 who they’re helping – they’re helping families on tight budgets get through the summer months.
Greenway shares that at the Demorest location, a grandmother brings her four grandchildren each day during the summer to eat lunch for free. It saves the family money and time. Plus, the kids get to have an outing each day with their grandma.
Shifting gears
As students and other system employees are preparing to head back to school, Thomas and her staff are merely shifting gears. They’re leaving behind the busy days of summer for an even busier school year.
With a staff of 79, Thomas and her team will spend the next ten months serving up 1,556,346 meals and snacks. Broken down, that’s 679,499 breakfasts, 854,809 lunches, and 22,038 after-school snacks.
As they say, there’s no rest for the weary, especially for those who are passionate about feeding kids.
