Accomack County Schools partners with No Kid Hungry to provide food for students during Summer

The Child Nutrition Services department at Accomack County Public Schools recently launched a home-delivery summer meal program, thanks to partnerships with No Kid Hungry Virginia and PepsiCo Foundation’s Food for Good program.

Approximately 2,000 Accomack families signed up for the summer meal delivery, which will bring a box containing 10 days’ worth of shelf-stable and nutritious breakfasts and lunches for children 18 years and younger.

The first shipment occurs July 10 and will end August 28.

“We’re proud and excited to provide this program to our Accomack community,” said Brandyn Burkholder, Child Nutrition Supervisor at Accomack County Public Schools. “The delivery services helps ensure students have the nutrition they need to thrive this summer. We hope area youth have a great summer break and look forward to serving them in the cafeteria again this fall.”

Local school nutrition leaders are able to offer the program thanks to federal policy change that allows for new non-congregate options, which enable meals to be served outside of traditional summer meal sites.

Summer hunger is a pressing concern in Accomack County: all Accomack students are eligible to receive free breakfast and lunch during the school year, but access to those meals goes away in the summer months.

Summer meal programs were designed to provide healthy meals during summer vacation, but have historically only reached a fraction of the kids who need them due to barriers like transportation, fuel costs, extreme weather and parent work schedules.

In Virginia, only about 15% students who rely on free meals in school access the meals in the summertime.

In rural areas like Accomack, kids often live many miles away from their closest meal site. Fortunately, earlier this year Congress approved significant improvements to the summer meals program, including new options that allow rural sites to offer the flexibilities that work for their community, like grab and go meals, meal delivery and pick-up of multiple meals at a time.

“The team is Accomack County displays endless innovation, enthusiasm and commitment when it comes to connecting local students with meals,” said Sarah Steely, Director of No Kid Hungry Virginia. “The important non-congregate flexibilities give rural districts like Accomack an opportunity to reach more students this summer. Delivering meals directly to kids or nearby means less youth experiencing hunger this summer and more students prepared to learn when the school year starts again.”

No Kid Hungry Virginia provided Accomack County Public Schools with a $50,000 grant to help start the delivery program.

Families interested in receiving home delivery can contact Brandyn Burkholder at [email protected].