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School ensures students are fed

BOARDMAN — School district staff and volunteers have worked together this year to ensure no student goes hungry during the ongoing pandemic.

The Food Service Department of Boardman School District on Wednesday had its final food giveaway for 2020. Roughly 200 sets of seven breakfasts and seven lunches were handed out to struggling families.

“We have done this every week since school started,” food service director Natalie Winkle said. “We also held it from March through June of this year.”

Winkle said the program was put together by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and its main objective was to ensure that every child had something to eat, and that the child would eat for free. To meet that goal, Winkle said the USDA reimburses food services that help provide healthy breakfasts and lunches for the children.

For Boardman, that meant a weekly food distribution where each child received the seven breakfasts and seven lunches, 14 meals per child. Considering there would be 200 packages given out, the Boardman staff had to assemble 2,800 meals.

“We had cafeteria staff and bus drivers donate their time at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday morning,” Winkle said. “They came in and helped assemble the meals in the school cafeteria. We also prep and freeze a lot ahead of time so students get a fresher meal that is more than just peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.”

She said the meals were loaded onto tray carts so they could be wheeled out to the curb at the high school. Winkle noted all those showing up on Wednesday were strictly volunteers.

Helping with loading the vehicles was volunteer Tom Draper, who put in 38 years while teaching at Boardman Center Middle School. He also was in charge of the middle school’s football program.

“Boardman has been good to me all those years,” he said. “So, I return the favor by donating my time.”

For the holiday break, Boardman opened its program to neighboring schools that don’t have a hand out during the two weeks leading into 2021. Several pre-registered and were able to pick up the meals. Winkle said it doesn’t matter whether they are Boardman students or not. The USDA will pay for the meals.

For those picking up the meals, everyone is grateful and the need is felt through the thanks that volunteers receive.

The Straub family is one whose lives were interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“My husband lost his job on April 1 due to COVID-19,” Christy Straub said. “He has since found other work and this (food) has really helped us get through the week.”

Straub’s daughter Allison, 9, a student at the middle school, rode along with her mom to the food distribution. She wanted to say hello to Winkle and was full of smiles of appreciation for the food she received.

jtwhitehouse@tribtoday.com

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