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Article published Jun 21, 2009 Walk-ins welcome: Blount County Schools feeding 800-900 children this summer
By Matthew Stewart of The Daily Times Staff
It’s all about the advertising.
“The most significant thing we do is feed children nutritious meals,” said Dr. Margie Carico, food service director for Blount County Schools, about a summer food program to feed any child younger than 18 years old a free meal each weekday through July 17. “We have learned how important it is to advertise early and make the community aware of it. It’s a must to be organized with a project like this.”
The school system is participating this year in the East Tennessee Human Resource Agency’s summer food program, which is provided funds through the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Department of Human Services.Blount County Schools has two feeding sites: Mary Blount and Rockford Elementary schools. During the program’s first two weeks, officials served about 8,000 lunches and provided 4,700 snacks to the Friends program.
“We’re pleased with this program, especially with it being out first year. It’s gotten really big,” Carico said.
Blount County Schools is serving between 800 and 900 students a day from 28 local programs, she said. These programs include community day cares, summer camps, sports and music programs, the Friends extended school program and kindergarten summer readiness program.Walk-ins welcome
Cafeteria personnel spend about four hours each day preparing food, said Sharon Russell, Mary Blount Elementary School’s site manager this summer.
Staff members are working off a cycled 11-day menu, and they have thus far prepared ham, chicken salad and pimento cheese sandwiches, Carico said. The student favorite is a chicken product called drummies.
School officials are also trying to heavily promote fruits and vegetables. Officials have ordered strawberries, apples, oranges, bananas, grapes and fruit cups.
‘We don’t have as many walk-ins as we’d like. It’s a market we’d like to promote next year. A lot of children who are hungry can’t get here,” Carico said. “We’re designing and implementing new strategies for the coming year. We’ll be starting with plans in January.”
A possible plan to feed students next year would involve having buses deliver lunches on both ends of the county.
“I think we can choose centralized spots in communities to feed children,” Carico said.Created 8 jobs
“I knew this would be a wonderful opportunity to put people back to work. A lot of our employees would have tried to get summer jobs in years past, but it would have been very difficult this year,” Carico said.
The summer food program allowed officials this summer to put eight employees back to work part-time.
In addition to helping a few employees earn a little extra cash this summer, the program has had significant interpersonal benefits. Sandy Finger, who works at Union Grove Elementary School during the school year, said cafeteria employees don’t often get time to meet workers from other county schools.
“We enjoy it more each and every day, but we’re tired when we go home,” Russell said. “I think it’s great for the kids. It’s also awesome for us to meet some new people,” said Jennifer Munday, a Mary Blount cafeteria worker.
All profits will stay in the school’s nutrition department budget, Carico said.
“This money will be used to further the program at each school with the purchase of small wares, utensils and promotions to increase participation.”Joining program
Officials interested in participating in the summer food program can contact Carico at 984-1212. She will contact ETHRA officials with the request, and the agency will send a monitor to visit the potential site. After ETHRA officials OK the site, Carico will be able to speak directly with summer program representatives. Carico said there will be daily contact with summer program officials, who will let staff members know how many meals are needed and when representatives will pick them up.