Thursday, July 20th, 2023
Out To Lunch
Program keeps St. Marys kids fed with meals
By Abigail Miller
Photo by Paige Sutter/The Daily Standard
Marnetta Cook hands out a bag of breakfast and lunch meals to the public.
ST. MARYS - Although it's summer, lunch staff at St. Marys City Schools are churning out about 10,000 meals per week.
Through the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), St. Marys serves five days worth of meals - breakfasts, lunches and milk - per child ages 1-18 in June and July.
Superintendent Bill Ruane said the school has been a part of SFSP since the pandemic.
SFSP is a federally funded, state-administered program. USDA reimburses program operators who serve no-cost, healthy meals and snacks to children and teens. Meals are served at summer sites in low-income communities.
St. Marys schools offer two open sites once a week where community members can take home a bag of five lunches, five breakfasts and a gallon of milk per child. There's no registration or proof of residency required.
Meals for about 1,080 students have been served weekly.
Food Service Supervisor Nicole Rasmussen said the program is crucial amid rising grocery prices.
Photo by Paige Sutter/The Daily Standard
A group of kids tote large bags of food at St. Marys East Primary School on Tuesday morning.
"I have three kids, and the cost of living is up," she said. "If you're going to the grocery store, $100 doesn't buy what $100 used to buy. The kids are home, they snack all day long, they eat all day long. I get it."
Since the program was first offered at St. Marys schools, it has gone through alterations.
"We've modified and changed it every year," Ruane said. "Rules from the federal government have changed a little bit."
At the start of the program in 2020, the school handed out around 300 lunches per week. Last year, due to USDA rule changes, students who participated in the program were required to eat their meals on campus.
Ruane said during that time the school sent a bus out to bring students to campus for the meals. The numbers dropped last year to about 30 kids served, he added.
Following that decline, the USDA relaxed the rules to allow students to take home their meals.
"The first week (after the rule change), I thought, 'Oh 500 (lunches), we'll be lucky,'" Rasmussen said. "We ran out. From there, I upped it every week."
Photo by Paige Sutter/The Daily Standard
A family walks away with their bags of food.
Rasmussen and her lunch staff of 13 workers hand out five days' worth of breakfast, lunch and milk to 1,080 students, which is around half of the St. Marys student body.
"As long as they let me do it, I'll do it," Rasmussen said.
The last lunch hand out of the summer is at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday at East Primary School and 2100 Celina Road, St. Marys.
Celina City Schools also hosted SFSP in June.
Cafeteria managers opted to go with mostly prepackaged food for the breakfast and lunch meals, which require little to no preparation by a child. Some of the items included Smucker's Uncrustables, which are peanut butter and jelly sandwiches; ham-and-cheese sandwiches and Pop Tarts.
"We have been offering summer meals to our students over the past ten years," Celina schools superintendent Ken Schmiesing said. "When we offered this non-aggregate program in the past, we served 300 meals. We expect our numbers to be close to that level this summer as well."
More than 1,000 students qualify for free or reduced meals during the school year, Schmiesing said.
"For those in our community who have food insecurity, this program helps them immensely," he said.
In 2022, Ohio summer program sponsors served more than 4.9 million meals at more than 2,000 sites across the state, according to Ohio Department of Education.
Photo by Paige Sutter/The Daily Standard
Jenn Gates helps distribute gallons of milk at St. Marys East Primary School.
