Southern Indiana schools offer free meal programs

Brooke McAfee, The Evening News and the Tribune, Jeffersonville, Ind.
·3 min read

Jun. 2—SOUTHERN INDIANA — Southern Indiana schools are continuing to feed kids even as the school year comes to an end.

Local school districts are beginning to offer free meals through the USDA's Summer Food Service Program, allowing kids to get the nutrition they need while school is out.

GREATER CLARK

In Greater Clark County Schools, Aramark offers free meals through "mobile feeding sites." The "Ate One Too" food truck is stationed at various locations in Clarksville and Jeffersonville throughout the week to provide lunches.

In addition to the mobile sites, breakfast and lunch are offered at New Washington Middle/High School, Northaven Elementary, Parkwood Elementary, Pleasant Ridge Elementary and Riverside Elementary.

The free meals are served Monday through Friday to any kids 18 or younger — they do not have to be a student in the school district. Since COVID-19 waivers from the USDA are no longer available for schools, students must eat the food on site and cannot take the food home.

Jordan Lewis, director of food services for Greater Clark, said the district feeds over 1,000 meals a day during the summer. The program is scheduled to run through June 30.

"Some of these students only see meals at breakfast and lunch at school, so we want to ensure we offer this opportunity to everyone throughout the district regardless whether they go to one of our schools or not," he said.

On Thursday, the food truck visited Bob Hedge Park in Jeffersonville and Clarksville Cove in Clarksville, and kids were given pork carnitas tacos served with green peas, a mixed berry cup and a bag of chips.

NEW ALBANY-FLOYD

The summer meal program will begin Monday for New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corp. The district will have an "open site" at Hazelwood Middle School that will offer free meal service for anyone 18 or younger.

The program will run from June 6 to July 22 at NAFCS and will include both breakfast and lunch for kids to eat in the cafeteria.

NAFCS also partners with the Floyd County Family YMCA and the New Albany Parks Department to provide meals for kids during the summer. Local recreation centers will offer free lunch and snacks to kids ages 18 or younger daily from June 6 to July 15.

The goal is to "feed as many kids as possible," according to Leslie Beach, NAFCS director of food and nutrition. On average, the district is feeding 250 kids a day.

"Our motto in our department is that we're here to feed the kids. It doesn't matter whether they're in school or not — we want to provide a nice meal for them so they get nutritious food," she said.

This year, NAFCS is offering more hot food items during the summer, according to Beach.

"We're trying to not just do cold sandwiches," she said. "We're offering hamburgers, roasted turkey with mashed potatoes and more appealing food and more hot breakfast for kids. We want to increase the want to come in. If we're going to do this program, we want to be successful and we want kids to enjoy what they're eating."

CLARKSVILLE COMMUNITY SCHOOLS

Clarksville Community Schools is offering free meals for any kid 18 or younger through June 23. This week, the program ran Tuesday through Friday, and starting next week, it will run Monday through Thursday.

The school is offering breakfast and a snack at Clarksville Elementary, Clarksville Middle School, and Clarksville High School. Kids must eat the meals on site.

The district will also offer meals later this month at Renaissance Academy to coordinate with the Camp Invention program, according to Clarksville Community Schools spokesperson Becca Gibson.

"The sad reality is that a lot of children in the community are not guaranteed a meal outside of school, and this sort of helps bridge the gap when school is out until they start back in the fall," she said. "We make sure students have one free meal and a healthy snack."