“Updates from Lunch Lady Land” CHILD NUTRITION WORKERS MAKE SURE AKRON STUDENTS EAT, EVEN WHEN THE JOB PUTS THEM AT RISK REPORTING, WRITING AND PHOTOS BY H.L. COMERIATO
T
he chocolate milk is a hit.
From kindergarten to senior year, Akron Public Schools students love those little paper cartons. But while on-site learning is on hold, Ellet Community Learning Center kitchen manager Julie Shumaker says the milks have taken on new meaning: 8 ounces of much-needed normalcy. This year will mark Shumaker’s 28th as an Akron Public Schools child nutrition worker. On the Ellet Orangemen Cafeteria Facebook page she runs, Shumaker offers “updates from Lunch Lady Land,” posting news about the district’s summer meal distribution program, photos of puppies and congratulatory notes to Ellet’s 2020 graduates. “When [students] come through our line and back out through the door, we’re the five minutes of the day that [no one] is harping on them,” says Shumaker. “We get to know the kids more on a personal, friendly basis than just as students.” Shumaker worries about the students she no longer sees every day. She’s afraid virtual learning won’t fulfill one of students’ most basic needs: food. “There was already this talk [about being] closed for a long period of time,” explains child nutrition coordinator Laura Kepler. “And schools — not just here in Akron, or Ohio, but across the country — they’re going to have to need to keep feeding meals because too many kids
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will be going without.” When Akron announced on March 16 that schools would close for three weeks, APS child nutrition workers rushed to prepare for a meal distribution program designed to adhere to social distancing and public health standards while getting students free and dependable breakfast and lunch every day of the week. “We really stopped serving in school on Friday, and by Tuesday, we were doing grab-and-go [meals],” Kepler says Since then, child nutrition workers have continued staffing meal distribution sites through the summer months, serving bagged, nutritious breakfasts and lunches for families to take home — complete with those 8-ounce cartons of chocolate milk. During an ordinary school year, Kepler says child nutrition workers serve 27,000 meals per day. Now, they’re serving around 6,000 per day. “It seems lower,” explains Kepler, “but that’s almost three times as much as we [normally] do in the summer.” Kepler says the district has distributed nearly 800,000 meals via 37 meal distribution sites at neighborhood schools across the city since schools closed. Even at distribution sites located in neighborhoods where families don’t typically face high rates of food insecurity, Kepler says the district has seen active participation in the program. “Had we picked just schools in
certain areas that we thought would get high participation,” says Kepler, “we would have been completely wrong.”
below 130% of the federal poverty level. For a family of four, that’s a monthly gross income under $3,000 — around $34,000 per year.
Shumaker, who’s been working meal distribution sites since March, says she now has a different insight into the families APS serves. Instead of working exclusively with students, Shumaker says child nutrition workers are now interacting with parents, grandparents and caregivers at meal distribution sites. “We’ve come to know people,” she says. “And they are just so grateful for the service we’re providing.”
Because Akron Public Schools’ poverty rate is so high, the district qualifies for the Community Eligibility Provision, a federally funded program designed to help high-poverty school districts feed students at no cost. Families living in school districts with high poverty rates don’t have to apply to receive school lunches for free or at reduced cost. Instead, districts that qualify are reimbursed by the USDA based on the percentage of families already participating in other food assistance programs, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Sometimes, the gratitude Shumaker receives from families is overwhelming. “It’s kind of weird, because they’re thanking us, but this isn’t coming out of my pocket.” “I’m not doing anything extraordinary,” Shumaker says. “I’m just doing my job.” Every APS student can eat for free at school. What about remotely? On July 27, the Akron Public Schools Board of Education announced that students would not be returning to school for on-site learning at the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year. Instead, students will learn from home. But online learning could mean losing access to many of the resources Akron Public Schools provides — including food. Mark Williamson, director of communications and news for Akron Public Schools, says that just under 97% of students in the district live
October 2020 · vol 6 · Issue #10
The Community Eligibility Provision reimburses the district for every meal served, which means all APS students can eat breakfast and lunch every day at no cost — eliminating a major barrier to food access for students who may already be struggling to access nutritious foods at home. But in a city where at least 90% of students and their families live below the federal poverty level, the need for accessible, nutritious foods has only become more necessary during the pandemic. One way to further reduce barriers to accessibility is to create spaces where students and their families feel safe, rather than judged. When parents and caregivers arrive at a meal distribution site, child nutrition workers hope they’ll encounter an environment free from judgment. Adults aren’t required to show ID, or thedevilstrip.com
