CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (WV News) — Harrison County Schools will be extending the timeline of their summer food distribution to include additional weeks of meals for students since the start of the school year was postponed to September 8.
Distribution will continue as normal at each of the county’s six locations on July 29 and Aug. 5, according to Child Nutrition Director Chris Derico.
“On Aug. 12, we will distribute two weeks of food, or 10 days worth, at our six locations,” he said. “It will be done this way due to how and when our summer employees are employed.”
“We will then distribute food at our six locations from 10 a.m. to noon on August 26, which will be our last day of summer food distribution.”
Students will be provided lunch in school on September 8, but if the school year began remotely, Derico said they would make plans to distribute meals on a weekly basis.
At the start of the school year, the child nutrition programs would no longer operate under the Summer Food Program, but switch to the National School Lunch Program, he said.
“The difference is during the Summer Food program, anyone ages 2-18 may receive free meals, but when we operate the National School Lunch Program, food distribution will be for students enrolled in Harrison County Schools,” he said.
In the event of remote start, Derico said he does not believe they would use pre-made boxes that were purchased in the spring, but rather continue to have cafeteria managers and cooks prepare the bags as they are now.
“I’m not sure how many locations we would distribute from, but we will have all of our staff working so it is possible for us to expand from the current six,” he said. “While we have also discussed using bus drivers, no decision has been made on this. We are still working out those type of details if we were to start doing remote instruction, but I will have more on those details when final decisions are made regarding the start of school.”
Wednesday’s distribution was similar to last week’s serving 2,873 five-day meal bags, according to Derico.
“We distributed many of those early in the first hour — I was really concerned we would run out but everything seemed to go about right,” he said. “At Washington Irving, we sent 400 meal bags and ran out around 11:40 at that location, but that may have been the weather and individuals wanted to get the bags prior to the rain arriving.”
As Energy Express comes to an end next year, the county is expecting to lose the mentors from the program in the assistance for packing and distribution of the bags, Derico said.
Per conversations with Harrison County Parks and Recreation Director Mike Book and Deputy Director Doug Comer, Derico said it has been offered that they will seek volunteers for the remainder of the summer weeks.
Book said Harrison County Parks and Recreation would like to “continue to help as long as needed over the summer and volunteers will be found ‘one way or another’ because of the meal program’s importance and the need in the county.”
“The main area we need assistance is in the packing of the bags,” Derico said. “Most of our volunteer needs take place on Tuesday morning for a couple of hours to pack the non-perishable items and then on Wednesday morning to pack the refrigerated or frozen items.”
While limiting the number of volunteers to allow for social distancing, anyone that would like to volunteer a couple of hours on Tuesdays or Wednesdays can contact Derico via email at [email protected].
Staff writer Kailee Kroll can be reached at (304)626-1439, by email at [email protected] or on Twitter at @kaileekroll.
