Bringing The School Cafeteria Home In Beverly
BEVERLY, MA — Beverly students can bring a little bit of hot comfort food home with them, along with their books and laptops for online learning, for the rest of the school year.
Beverly Public Schools have extended their free breakfast lunch program through the end of the academic year with the help of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and are looking at ways to make students feel more connected to school while learning remotely through their offerings.
"September was very basic and now we are trying to get a lot more creative," Beverly Public Schools Food Service Director Christina Leal told Patch. "Nachos are one of our biggest sellers so now we're doing that. We are working on doing meatball subs for November. It's just more variety for the kids with the kinds of food that they like.
"Serving the foods that they would eat here at school gives the kids a sense of normalcy."
Leal is happy the program — which she said has already served 17,000 breakfasts and 18,000 lunches to go since the start of the school year in September — has been extended so that she and her staff are reassured no one who might need a meal goes without one because they are afraid or embarrassed to ask for one.
"One of our biggest fears was actually how to discreetly find out about benefit status," Leal said. "Now everyone gets one. Everyone is encouraged to get one."
While some communities initially limited free meals programs early in the health crisis this spring to one meal for every student present to pick them up, Beverly has a relaxed policy where anyone who says they need a certain amount of meals gets them with no questions asked.
"We're definitely encouraging those wanting to pick up meals for your neighbors, you can do that," Leal said. "It's a great program. Especially if you have four kids, they eat a lot. Who couldn't use extra meals? It's free and we want everyone to participate in it.
"We are hoping that kids who don't normally get school lunch will try it and will like it so they will get it whenever we go back to what normal will look like here."
On Thursdays, Beverly students get the extra treat of a Farms-to-Families food box that includes milk, cheese, hot dogs and other goodies. Leal said she is hoping the USDA extends that program for the rest of the school year as well.
"Our numbers have more than doubled since March," said Heather Johnston, Beverly Bootstraps' Director of Development and External Affairs, told Patch last month. "We have seen some pretty significant growth. Even pre-COVID there was a wide variety of income levels in the community. What we've seen over the last coupleof years is that it's not always certain pockets. It might be your neighbor."
The Beverly Schools program also began delivering meals this week to anyone who cannot come to the schools to pick them up using volunteer drivers.
"People really see the benefit of it," Leal said. "The amount of volunteers, and the people who want to help, in the district has been amazing. We have high hopes that will go really well.
"Everybody needs food."
Lunches are available for all in-person students at the end of the school day — which is between noon and 1 p.m. depending on grade level in the hybrid program — along with breakfast for the following day. Students in remote learning can pick up meals at Beverly High School from 7:15 to 7:45 p.m. or 10:30 to 11:30 a.m.
Anyone willing to make deliveries, or has questions about the program, can contact Leal at cleal@beverlyschools.org.
This article originally appeared on the Beverly Patch
