Salem Schools continues Summer Food Service Program

Summer Food Service Chefs

Temperatures are beginning to approach triple digits, the sun now burns you in seconds flat, and everybody is seemingly skipping town to go on vacation. That can only mean one thing: it’s summertime!

Summertime also means students are home from school for two months. This can, and often does, put an added stress on single, working parents and households where both parents/guardians leave for work everyday. Salem Community Schools (SCS) is once again helping to relieve some of the pressure through their Summer Food Service Program (SFSP). We spoke to SCS Food Service Director Karen Libka and Nutrition Operations Manager Brittany Nicholson about the SFSP, how it works, and how to sign up.

The first food pickup will be Thursday, June 25 at Bradie Shrum Elementary School, and pickups will follow on a weekly basis each Thursday. There will be an area for vehicles to pull up in front of the main entrance, where parents, guardians and caregivers of children will be greeted with seven breakfasts and lunches for each child in their household. However, you must sign up each week before picking up meals. This includes informing the Food Service workers of how many children that are in the household. The first sign up opportunity will be Thursday, June 18. A post will be made on the Salem Schools Facebook Page that will ask for SFSP signups, and the post will remain available each weekend through Sunday.

Please note, your child does not have to be a Salem Schools student to pick up food from the SCS summer meal program. However, they cannot also be receiving meals from East Washington Schools, which has a similar program.

Karen Libka has been working in SCS Food Services for the past 25 years, and Nicholson previously worked as a classically trained pastry chef. She has been with the school for three years now.

“I was involved in [the program] when it started at Salem [Community Schools],” said Libka. “[The USDA] talked to us about it, and we thought it was a great thing and decided to try it.”

She went on to explain that the first year they attempted the Summer Food Service Program, they handed out food five days per week at the elementary school, made food for the Delaney Park Paddle Club five days per week,and delivered food to Southway Villa three days per week, as well as other locations.

“The drawback of the initial program until recently is that the meals were required by the USDA to be consumed on-site,” added Libka. “And the parent would have to sit and wait for their child to eat before leaving… You never knew how many meals to prepare. We might have 35 [people show up] one day, and 12 the next… [USDA] said the program was designed for urban and inner-city areas where you have a big group of kids that can just walk there. There, you have more consistent numbers and a much larger pool to draw from.”

She then added that the rules, as of three years ago, have changed in-favor of rural areas like Washington County. The USDA then made an exception, allowing rural areas to use a “non-congregate” model that permitted food to be taken by children and consumed at the time and place of their choosing.

For those wondering why the SFSP is starting at the end of June when children have already been out of school for several weeks, that is due to some pesky rules the government has while summer school is in session. According to the USDA, schools are not allowed to host a non-congregate pickup (where food is able to be taken home) at the same time and location as a congregate food service. The two types of Summer Food Service options cannot be within ten miles of one another.

“For some kids– and we see them every day in the lunchroom– for some kids, the food they get here at school is the most food they get anywhere,” Libka said. “I really worry about those kids that we are unable to feed congregate. But it is an open site. So, somebody could call us and say, ‘I am going to bring my two kids in for lunch today.’ We just ask that they do that so we make sure we have enough food.”

Brittany Nicholson then added, “I planned the menus for the SFSP and took into consideration fresh, whole foods for the kids in addition to some stuff they are familiar with at school that they really like. We have a two-week menu rotation… So, it’ll just flip-flop every week.”

“This is for everybody,” Libka concluded. “There are no income guidelines at all, and there is no application. We just want to help feed kids.”