From staff reports
Contributed
HONORED â The Childrenâs Hunger Alliance, a non-profit organization dedicated to eradicating childhood food insecurity, honored the Indian Creek Local School Districtâs Food Service team for their dedication to feeding students during the COVID-19 pandemic. The staff worked with the Bay 6 Project of Mingo Junction to serve an estimated 89,000 breakfast and lunch meals to children amid the shutdown and their efforts have earned accolades for the program. Among those helping were, front from left, Lisa Pearce, P.J. Redmond, Angela Van Kirk and Ashley Agin; back, food service Director Eric White, Rick Oxley of Childrenâs Hunger Alliance, Lâtanya Martin and Laura Sabedra-Norris.
All Westerville City Schools students eligible for free breakfast, lunch through end of school year
ThisWeek group
Westerville City Schools students still may receive a free lunch and breakfast through the end of this school year.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has extended flexibilities in its Summer Food Service Program and Seamless Summer Option through June 30 to allow schools and other sites to continue to provide meals at no cost to all children, according to the USDA website: usda.gov.
The department previously extended free meals through December 2020, based on funding available at the time, but was able to extend throughout the entire 2020-21 school year through a continuing resolution signed into law by former President Donald Trump on Oct. 1, 2020, according to the USDA.
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T-L Photo/KIM NORTH
THE BRIDGEPORT Exempted Village School District and its food service staff are presented with the Children’s Hunger Alliance Child Nutrition Award. Pictured, from left, are Rick Oxley, representing Children’s Hunger Alliance; Bridgeport Exempted Village School District Food Service Director Donna Burlenski; and Bridgeport Exempted Village School District Superintendent Brent Ripley.
BRIDGEPORT When schools across the nation were shut down last spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic, one in five children approximately 529,000, across Ohio were deemed food insecure.
That wasn’t the case in the Bridgeport Exempted Village School District, though. Members of the food service staff and volunteers coordinated meals that families picked up at the school, ensuring that the students had access to food to meet their nutritional needs. And when students returned to their classrooms, whether full time or under a hybrid in-person/rem