Central Berkshire Schools Summer Meal Program Feeds Hundreds
DALTON, Mass.— Central Berkshire Regional School District helped feed hundreds of kids this summer thanks to its new Summer Meals Program.
In the month of July alone, the district served 11,410 meals to families with children under 18, said John Tranfaglia, food service director.
"The summer meals program that we started has been phenomenal. We've provided almost 12,000 meals so far and the work that food service is doing to prepare the meals and distribute them is outstanding. We're definitely providing a needed resource for the community," Superintendent Michael Henault said.
The second week of the program's opening, the line wrapped around the school, he said.
"So, you get a sense of the need in our community and people are very appreciative. We spent the first couple weeks working some kinks out and really trying to make sure that we're meeting demand and I think we are now," Henault said.
The district chose to implement this service using a noncongregate, or distributed, meal system, allowing families to take weekly meals home and enjoy them at their convenience.
This system improves the accessibility of the service because families do not have to schedule their meals around the program's hours, Tranfaglia said.
An individual swings by one of the district's two meal sites, lets the attendants know how many kids under age 18 are in their household, and goes home with a week's worth of packed meal bags for each child.
Each bag contains seven breakfasts, seven lunches, and a gallon of milk, all adhering to the required nutritional guidelines.
In addition, they will sometimes throw in extra items such as snacks, frozen pizza, chicken tenders, hummus, etc.
The program will run until Aug. 20. Meal packs are distributed between 8 a.m. and noon, every Tuesday at Nessacus Regional Middle School and Wednesdays at Becket Washington School.
"In the month of July, we served 815 bags. But that breaks down to 11,410 meals. So that's how many meals we've handed out in four weeks," Tranfaglia said.
"It's pretty incredible. The volume that ends up happening, which is wonderful. It's amazing. And the staff are just over the top incredible."
Ensuring that the program was easily accessible was a priority, especially considering that the Central Berkshire Regional School District has a very large footprint between all the towns, Tranfaglia said.
"Coming from Cummington and Goshen, areas out there that is untapped right now. I would love those families to have opportunities to be part of this," said Gregory Boino, director of finance and operations.
"I mean, coming from Cummington to come to pick up meals at Nessacus, it's a trek and hopefully next year we can do something out there as well."
Although a large majority of the program's participants are part of the district, it is available to anyone with a child under 18.
The program comes at no cost to the district, which gets completely reimbursed by state and federal funds through the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's summer feeding program.
This year was the district's first year being a Community Eligibility Program because of the percentage of poverty within its towns.
"So, switching to that category kind of started the conversation that there's probably this additional need during the summers," Boino said.
A program like this is not based on the free and reduced families within the district; it's based on any child 18 or younger who has some type of need, Tranfaglia said.
"If there's one family that needs it, then there's a value … Being able to come around, even if they don't qualify for free and reduced but are able to come around and get a meal, is highly beneficial."
He said the program helps everyone and the more people who participate the more successful the program becomes.
"We have a grandmother that comes in and she's picking up for two different families, and she's all excited and happy" because it costs a fortune to feed all the kids she is watching, he said.
"This just helps her out and that's the benefit of it. That's what makes us smile."
Tags: CBRSD, meal program, school program,
