News

'Meals on the Bus' will feed needy kids next summer

By Molly McGowan Gorsuch, Published: December 1, 2016

The Child Nutrition Department of Henderson County Public Schools will add a “Meals On the Bus” mobile feeding site to its summer feeding program in Summer 2017, thanks to a $10,000 grant awarded by the Community Foundation of Henderson County.

The grant money will be used to renovate the interior of a retired school bus already purchased from the HCPS transportation department, thanks to a donation from Gillilandscaping and Grading. The retrofitted bus will accommodate up to 15 students seated on bar stools at tabletops along either side of the bus, and a wheelchair lift.

The brainchild of Child Nutrition Supervisor Amanda Stansbury, the “Meals On the Bus” mobile feeding site will revolutionize the way the school system – and potentially other service organizations – can reach students in need.

“The whole goal of ‘Meals On the Bus’ is to reach those students who are dependent on the school bus – and school meals,” Stansbury said.

Through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), HCPS already operates three public feeding sites at King Creek, Edneyville Community Center, and Patton Park, offering free lunches to children ages two to 18 – in addition to a total of 28 closed feeding sites at each elementary school and youth service organizations.

Last summer the HCPS Child Nutrition Department’s summer feeding program served 37,090 lunches and 18,694 breakfasts – which was 15,169 more lunches and 7,036 more breakfasts than in the summer of 2014-15. And those meals were only served to students who could travel to the feeding sites.

“Our impoverished kids are spread throughout our area,” said Matt Gruebmeyer, the school system's director of Title I and homeless education services. “Rural poverty is a lonely kind of poverty because the children don’t live near each other. So when we try to find a place to feed children, it’s difficult because they’re spread around.”

The mobile food site will allow HCPS to reach students where they are, Stansbury said. Using existing HCPS bus routes, the Child Nutrition Department will work with the Transportation Department each summer to establish routes that will take meals to students in need five days a week during the summer months.

In the future, the “Meals On the Bus” vehicle could also be utilized by partnering organizations to provide students with a mobile library book check-out, health screenings and dental checks.

The Community Foundation of Henderson County, founded in 1982, supports charitable programs in the greater Henderson County area. In the past fiscal year, more than $4.42 million in new charitable contributions were made to the Foundation, which awarded more than $2.96 million in grants and scholarships.