Bibb County Schools providing summer meal access for kids
Free meals are available at select Bibb County schools this summer as nutrition leaders navigate supply chain disruptions, tariff hikes and the loss of a key grant.
MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – With summer break in full swing, the Bibb County School District is stepping in to make sure children don’t go hungry while school is out.
Families often find that food tends to go quickly around the house during the summer months. Condus Shuman, the Executive Director of the Nutrition Department at Bibb County School District, says it’s important to support students during this time.
“When you’ve got a kid that’s got a full belly, you’ve got a kid that’s got a full heart and mind, and they can conquer anything in the world,” she said.
Over the next few weeks, the district will provide free breakfast and lunch to children 18 years old and younger at various schools and community sites. Breakfast will be served at select middle and high schools from 8 to 8:30 a.m. and at select elementary schools from 9 to 9:30 a.m. Lunch will be available at all sites from 12:30 to 1 p.m. Meals must be eaten onsite, and parents can eat as well for a $5 charge.
Here’s the list of schools offering the summer meal program:
- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School
- H.G. Weaver Middle School
- John R. Lewis Elementary School
- SOAR Academy Personalized Learning Center
- Southwest High School
- Veterans Elementary School
Amber Lynch, the Summer Feeding Coordinator at the Bibb County School District, says meals play a critical role for students who rely on school cafeterias for their daily nutrition.
“It’s very crucial that we provide the same with our options because we know that some of our students, they only have access to our cafeteria during the main school year,” she said. “So sometimes they may not have access to a healthy meal outside of the school day. So, this gives them the opportunity to still get that healthy, nutritious meal.”
Executive Director Condus Shuman says tariffs could play a role in how your kids are fed.
“Many of us do biodegradable trays, or we have paper trays, paper goods, much of that paper does come from overseas for the manufacturers here to make those trays,” she said. “And so that tariff will go up so that’s going to impact our plate costs, which in and in essence impacts the whole program.”
She also says many of the food items are canned.
“A lot of our beans and carrots and vegetables are in those cans,” she said. “And so, we’re just trying to see what’s going to happen. So, it’s a trickle down effect. It’s going to impact us, but we just don’t know how yet.”
Funding cuts have also posed challenges in sourcing local produce.
“We did lose our grant,” Shuman said. “It’s called the local Foods for School Grant. And that grant is a grant that Bibb County has received for the past two consecutive years, and that allows us to buy fruits and vegetables and products from locally grown farmers.”
In light of these challenges, Shuman said they must be creative and resourceful.
“We just have to be innovative and think outside of the box and kind of maneuver in a different way, in a different pattern to make sure that we are feeding the children, still feeding them those healthy meals, still being able to meet those requirements of our low fat dairies, our whole grains, our fruits, and vegetables, and just kind of come up with some recipes and start thinking of how to do some scratch cooking, so it looks a little different but still meeting the need,” she said.
The program runs Monday through Thursday until June 26.
