School district and its food service provider combat Fayette County child hunger

Two community partners, however – the Fayette County School Corp. and Chartwells food service – are doing everything they can, evidenced by many ongoing food programs they have initiated locally, to ensure that Fayette County children are fed.

Monday kicks off the annual FCSC/Chartwells Fall Break Lunch Program, which takes place at Maplewood Elementary and offers a free lunch to all children 18 and under, but the lunch program is far from the only thing both entities are involved in to combat child hunger.

Rachel O’Brien, food services director for Chartwells in the FCSC, spent Thursday talking about the several other programs taking place with the goal of making sure there isn’t a single child within the FCSC that goes hungry.

And, like it does with most every person, it begins with breakfast, with the school corporation and Chartwells – just this year – expanding universal free breakfast to all FCSC schools, with Maplewood and Grandview elementaries instituting it this year.

It is a program which, since its implementation, has seen tremendous growth, according to O’Brien.

“Now we are doing universal breakfast at every school,” she said. “Every school in the district, in Fayette County, has free breakfast for all buildings. All of our elementary buildings are free for the kids, and the middle school, and here at the high school, we’re doing a program called ‘Second Chance Breakfast.’”

So basically, the kids can come in and eat when they get off the bus, or they can wait until after first and second period, and they can go to a cart that’s set up here on the campus – we have six different carts – and they can grab a breakfast for free,” O’Brien continued. “So it’s free for all the kids at the high school, too, but they get a second chance.”

That “second chance” came about after discussions between O’Brien and CHS Principal Randal Judd, which determined that most teens find themselves hungrier later in the morning, rather that first thing.

Such a determination has been proven true, just based on the numbers of CHS students utilizing the “Second Chance” breakfast program.

“So we’ve went from probably serving 80 kids for breakfast previously (at the high school) to (Thursday), we had 319,” O’Brien said. “Our highest number’s been 425. So it’s really grown and a lot of the kids are really taking advantage of it. It’s free breakfast, and they take it to their classroom and eat it.”

The numbers of elementary school students taking advantage of the universal free breakfasts has also increased, especially at Maplewood and Grandview, O’Brien added.

Since the start this school year of the universal free breakfast program at those schools, they’ve seen their daily numbers grow from roughly 120 students a day to 260 students eating breakfast.

“So those schools doubled,” O’Brien said. “If it’s free and the kids see it in the class, they take advantage. Because it’s not as cool to go to the cafeteria in the morning, if your friend’s not going. So in the classroom, it’s already there and it’s waiting for you, and a lot of the kids take advantage of that.”

Not only is it helping fill the bellies of students, the universal free breakfasts are also helping teachers within the FCSC. Not only are they getting some instructional time back – students eat the breakfast in their classroom, rather than at the cafeteria – the students are also more attentive and ready to learn.

“It’s actually helped with a lot of the teachers getting instructional time back. Because the kids are ready to go, instead of rushing in from the cafeteria, the bus or the gym, wherever they were housed before,” O’Brien commented. “Grandview was one of those we saw the biggest difference. I heard from a lot of teachers there that the kids were a lot more attentive. They weren’t as tired, as sleepy, and they have a lot less nurse visits. There were less kids going to visit the nurse in the morning with sick stomachs, because they hadn’t eaten before they came into school.”

Any doubts about the program, and its positive impact, can easily be put to rest when looking at the numbers.

During the 2016-17 school year, the FCSC and Chartwells served roughly 345,000 breakfasts, and approximately 428,000 lunches.

“It’s been a great program ... our breakfast has really grown because of that program,” O’Brien said. “It’s not even a 100,000 less than our lunch program.  So it’s really grown.”

Something else which has grown is a supper program, which is also free to FCSC students who stay after school for, say, an athletic event or tutoring. Funded through the state of Indiana and the Child and Adult Nutrition Program – which also funds the lunch meals during school breaks, such as the Fall Break Lunch Program this week – the supper program, offered at all FCSC schools, served about 34,000 meals in 2016-17.

“They can eat breakfast, lunch and supper at school,” O’Brien said. “We try to make sure they all have food available to them. We’re really trying to help these kids and make sure they have food. At least five days a week, they have three meals.”

Add in the ongoing Backsack Program, which provides take home meals to students for the weekend, and it’s evident that both Chartwells and the FCSC are doing everything they can to make sure children are fed.

It also turns out that both are also doing what they can, with a program which started last year, to help local residents eat as well.

Both the FCSC and Chartwells have partnered on a “Food Rescue Program,” started in the 2016-17 school year and continuing this year, which rescues unused food items and in turn, is then provided to local food pantries and feeding programs.

Per O’Brien, the program is possible due to the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Act, which allows schools to donate unused food without being liable after it leaves their buildings.

“We can donate fruit, milk, string cheese, pre-packaged items from breakfast that maybe kids didn’t want,” she said. “We donate that back to the food pantries here in town.”

Among those recipients are the Salvation Army Lord’s Table feeding program, the Fayette Senior Center, Community Sharing food pantry and several local churches which operate their own food pantries.

“Every school is now partnered with a local food pantry,” O’Brien commented. “Last year, we donated over 63,000 items to these local food pantries. The kids can also go to a food pantry night, during the week, and also get some of those items.

I was finding out that a lot of the food pantries don’t have fresh fruit or milk. They cannot get milk through their grants,” she added. “Instead of going into the trash, it’s going back to a community partner. We’re trying to reutilize everything in this community.” 

Such efforts, per O’Brien, are many and, in her experience, are much more than what occurs in other school corporations. But it is because it’s needed.

“I don’t see it anywhere else, as far as the number of programs we offer. We feed these kids from breakfast to supper, Monday through Friday, and then we’re also making sure they have food in the local food pantries, so they can go and they can have food on the weekends,” she said. “With Fayette County, the need is so great, and we’ve really rose up to meet that need.”

It’s not just because of the need, however – it’s also because of the investment into local children that both the FCSC and Chartwells want to make, according to O’Brien, a resident of Glenwood who has worked in food service in the FCSC for the past nine years.

“I definitely know the school corporation and the community, and we care about it,” she concluded. “These kids are our kids.

“You have a responsibility to help them.”