SJSD's nutrition services prepare for hybrid students as community continues to face food insecurity

SJSD's nutrition services prepare for hybrid students as community continues to face food insecurity (10-12-20)

Day of hybrid learning for st.

Joseph school district students... but how does the new school schedule impact families that rely on school meals to feed their kids?

Kq2's kilee thomas spoke with the district's nutrition service and community members about how wide-spread food insecurity is in st.

Joseph, and why continuing meal pick ups are essential: <<kilee thomas reporting: sot: shelia gilbert, food for kids- "the impact in this community has been overwhelming."

Sot: brian tarr, sjsd nutrition director- "we do see a need in the community."

For students living in food insecure homes- going to school during the covid-19 pandemic has added another level of uncertainty sot: tarr- "there is some concern that some students may go without meals."

Sot: gilbert- "we have kids come knock on our door and tell us they're hungry and we go in our pockets or our cupboard for them."

Community leaders say for a lot of families in the sjsd-school meals are their only guaranteed meals for the day.

Sot: tarr- "we're feeding approximately 8,000 students a day."

17 of the 22 schools in the district have 51% or more students on free or reduced lunch - qualifying them for the seamless summer program sot: tarr- "we just got confirmation that it will go until the end of june."

With the district going hybrid- nutrition services says they're making sure students are getting their fruits and veggies, no matter áwhereá they're learning sot: tarr- "even when we do virtual or hybrid meal pickups, they get a breakfast and lunch for each day they aren't in school."

Sot: donita swafford, carden park nutrition manager- "say if on tuesday, 40 students pick up, we send 120 breakfasts and 120 lunches cause that takes them through the three days.

In the meantime, we're still doing our normal meals here.

It's quite a shuffle of things."

Hybrid and virtual parents can pick up their student's meals for the days they aren't in school but cafeteria staff say they wish more families were taking advantage of these free meals sot: swafford- "enrollment here at carden park is like 650 students, so knowing that we're at least feeding 400-500 of them still makes me worry about the ones that aren't participating in this.

I'm hoping and praying that their parents are able to take care of their needs in that way."

While community leaders are hoping the free meals last sot: gilbert- "it is very important that these children get their meals from school because that average family has two or more children in their home.

Most of them are single parent homes, so this is a struggle for the family."

Reporting in st.

Joseph kilee thomas kq2 news.>> tarr says the usda's "seamless summer" program is extended from december 31st to the end of next june... families must submit their meal request forms every week by thursday at noon to pick up meals for the following week.

You can find the form on the school district's