“Great news!!” said FCS Superintendent Bob Szymoniak, in his September 10^th letter. “The federal government has extended the summer meals program to December 31, or when the program runs out of money, whichever comes first. ”

Following Phase 4 of the FCS COVID-19 Preparedness & Response Plan, the Fruitport School District determined that students would be enrolled either in the 100% virtual schooling, or in the face-to-face/hybrid option, prior to the August 31st school opening. But for elementary students, full-time face-to-face classes were available. The school district, led by the curriculum director, allowed families to make the decision on which system they wanted to enroll their children in, so that staffing and resource allocation adjustments, including adjustments to the meal distribution plan, could be made accordingly.

Originally, under the National School Lunch Program, qualifying students enrolled full- or part-time in virtual learning were encouraged to apply for free/reduced-cost meals that would be provided by the schools. These meals consisted of pre-boxed breakfast and lunch kits that parents or guardians could pick up at the FCS Middle School on Wednesdays. Full-time virtual students were given 5 meal kits a week, while part-time virtual students were given 3. Students attending school full-time were not mentioned as qualifying for meal kit pickup.

As of August 31, the USDA Food and Nutrition Service has extended their Summer Food Service Program, which has supplied waivers for food service providers to enable them to focus on feeding kids instead of wading through paperwork. Students no longer have to fit the original qualifications to get free or lower-cost meals.

“That means that all of our students can eat for free, whether they qualify for the free/reduced meals program or not…at least until the [summer meals] program ends,” Szymoniak said in his letter. “This program will include both virtual and hybrid students as well. And, of course, students attending school do not have to do anything to qualify for this program…they just eat for free!”

Due to the pandemic, most in-school meals are pre-boxed, just like the pick-up meals, to minimize the amount of time and interaction that students in the cafeteria have when they pick up their meals.

Szymoniak went on to explain that FCS intends to further expand their meal program. “We will also be covering meal kits for weekends, so that virtual students would pick up 7 days of meal kits, hybrid students would pick up 5 days of meal kits, and face-to-face elementary students could pick up 2 meal kits to cover the weekends.”

US Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, reported in the USDA’s August 31 press release, “This extension of summer program authority will employ summer program sponsors to ensure meals are reaching all children – whether they are learning in the classroom or virtually – so they are fed and ready to learn, even in new and ever-changing learning environments.”

by Kate and Calvin Holtrop: Published in the Fruitport Area News, 2020, October Issue, page 38