MEALS ON THE MOVE: NC Options for School Nutrition Teams and Community Meal Sponsors
THE CHALLENGE: The COVID-19 crisis and the shifting status of school reopenings have exacerbated the common challenge of getting meals in the hands of kids who need them outside of normal school time. Whether families have transportation barriers keeping them from visiting meal sites, or live spread out in rural areas that make delivery difficult, the “last mile” of getting meals to kids is a challenge for many school districts.
MEALS ON THE MOVE is a collection of innovative options for North Carolina compiled by the Carolina Hunger Initiative.
We hope to offer tested approaches that break down the barriers to getting meals directly to children.
We share common goals: To serve as many healthy meals at no cost to families as possible during these extreme pandemic conditions and to help sustain sponsoring organizations’ vital nutrition services programs during these uncertain economic times.
Different options or strategies will apply to different situations. School district nutrition teams and community organization sponsor partners are asked to look at the options and strategies to find out which might be most helpful, then visit that page to learn more about how to get started.
Click on the yellow icons below to learn more about each option.
If You Lead a School Nutrition Team or are a Community Organization Meals Sponsor, Meals on the Move may offer help.
Questions to Ask:
- What portion of children in the school district or county are you or others currently reaching with healthy, reliable meals?
- How many reimbursable meals does your school district nutrition team need to serve to break even financially?
- Is your organization or team having staffing issues?
- Are you serving meals all 7 days a week, during holidays and school breaks during the school year and throughout every day of all the summer months?
- Are you using the NC DHHS-administered At-Risk Afterschool Meals federal nutrition assistance program (part of the Child and Adult Care Food Program or CACFP) to provide reimbursable supper meals and snacks and maximize funding?
- Have you been getting requests for volunteers to support your meal service?
- Are partnerships in place between your school district and community organization sponsors to help fill gaps in service?
- Do you need funding support? See grant opportunities.