DOTHAN, Ala. (WTVY) – “We will not have the bus running this year,” says Dothan City Schools’ Child Nutrition Director, Tonya Grier.
Usually the Groovy Grub Bus delivers meals to students in need throughout the summer, but this year, the wheels won’t be turning.
Grier explains, “Simply because of the supply chain issues and being unable to know if we’re gonna have the supplies to pack meals, because if you’re doing meals away from the cafeteria, we can’t really serve meals off the bus on a tray, they would need to be packaged for delivery, and we can’t be sure that we’ll be able to get those supplies.”
In the past, DCS’s summer food program provided over 2,4000 meals per day.
“It was important, it is important,” says Grier. “However, with us not being able to guarantee that we could have food, we didn’t want to start a program and then say a week in, we don’t get a delivery and then the bus can’t run because we don’t have any food to take out.”
The district can only focus on providing meals for their summer enrichment students.
“Food shortages, delivery shortages, things like that are not something that we would ever expect to see in our program,” continues Grier. “I mean, it’s just almost unheard of or unthinkable that schools would have a problem getting supplies and food to feed kids.”
Adding to the stress, USDA COVID waivers are being lifted the last day of school.
“That means that we are no longer under those waivers to allow for certain types of feeding, or changes to the meal pattern, also what goes away is the fact that all students can eat at no charge,” Grier finished.
DCS is pushing through the challenges with hopes the Groovy Grub Bus will be back in the neighborhoods next summer.
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