Author: Deborah Scaggs
Planning Unit: Pendleton County CES
Major Program: Accessing Nutritious Foods (general)
Outcome: Intermediate Outcome
Summer Feeding Program
Since COVID-19 started and the schools dismissed early. We were at a loss as what to do for children and families. How do we reach them? How do we stay in contact with them? How do we know they are being fed? So many questions and no answers. Then, I made contact with the director of the FRYSC, Family Resource Youth Service Center at Johns Creek Elementary and was told that ‘unless you were an employee of the school system the principal was not allowing anyone or anything inside the school.’ This was in April.
I kept in touch with the FRYSC Director and on May 13, myself (SNAP-Ed Assistant) and the EFNEP Assistant went to work at Johns Creek Elementary helping the lunchroom staff prepare food bags for the Summer Feeding Program. We would prepare the bags on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and then give them out on Fridays. We done this for one month. We were also allowed to bring nutrition information to hand out to the parents when they picked up their food bags.
This program continued until June 11. In total, we fed over four thousand children and families through this collaboration.
One parent said, “I don’t know what I would’ve done if you guys hadn’t done this program this summer, my children would’ve went hunger.”
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