Marcy Rutland and her staff at Owaso Public School’s child nutrition office are doing their best to keep chicken nuggets, pizza and flatbread sandwiches coming.
In April, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service announced the extension of several COVID-19-related exemptions for school districts’ child nutrition programs through the 2021-2022 school year. One of those exemptions was to provide free school meals for all children, regardless of their income level.
For many area school districts, those exemptions mean more kids picking up a tray, passing through the cafeteria line or going to their parents to pick up a meal via curbside service. Since classes have started, breakfast participation in Owaso Public Schools has already increased by a third from 2020-2021.
“We’re serving kids we’ve never served before,” Rutland said. “Our food count has skyrocketed.”
In the South, Jenks public schools are also seeing increased demand for lunch, including older students. Pat Meadows, director of the Department of Child Nutrition for Jenks Public Schools, said that although they have to deal with some last-minute menu changes due to supply chain issues, school lunch participation has only increased from 301 meals in the average day at Jenks . High School.
“This is a great opportunity to feed all the students for free,” Meadows said. “Proper nutrition is very important to a student’s learning process.”
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