School System Partnership Will Help Bring Food Directly to Students’ Doors
A new partnership is helping to ensure Tallassee City School students in need have food to put on the table.
According to Child Nutrition Program Coordinator Loria Hunter, 60% of students in the Tallassee City School system are eligible for free and reduced lunches.
When the coronavirus pandemic began, the school system offered curbside pickup to help meet students nutritional needs. But they soon found another challenge.
“We realized that quite a few of our free and reduced students were not able to come and participate in that program,” Hunter said.
That’s when school officials found out about a program that would deliver shelf-safe meals directly to the students’ doors.
It’s called the “Meals To You” Program and it’s made possible through the Baylor University Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty. It works with school districts and state agencies across the nation to ensure students have meals when schools are closed due to emergencies, like the Covid-19 pandemic.
The packages contain enough food to last the students more than a week.
“Baylor will take care of everything. Their vendors will actually package the ten breakfasts and lunch meals. And send them directly to the households, based on the addresses the households provide,” Hunter said.
Tallassee parents can sign up online through the Tallassee City School’s website. You can click here for more information.
Only the students who receive free and reduced lunches through the National School Lunch Program are eligible.
The school system has to confirm eligibility requirements.
“As we’ve attempted to do our best to feed our kids during this pandemic, you’re always trying to balance safety, social distancing-kind of issues. And so this program will really fit a niche that we’re not serving or maybe not serving as well as we could,” Tallassee City School’s Superintendent Wade Shipman said.
Registration ends May 8th.
School officials say the meals will begin to arrive later this month…
If you’re a Tallassee parent who believes your child could eligible, or if you have questions, you can call the Tallassee City Schools Child Nutrition Program at 334-283-6864.
