When it became clear this week’s snow would cause Montgomery County schools to close for multiple days, the Maryland school district’s Division of Food Nutrition and Services started preparing.
Between breakfast and lunch, the state’s largest school system serves about 100,000 meals every day. But they’re unable to when campuses are closed because of weather.
On the second day of a “Code Red,” emergency meals start. At New Hampshire Estates Elementary in Silver Spring on Wednesday, several families formed a line before the noon pickup time.
Nick Greer, a wellness supervisor in the Division of Food and Nutrition Services, and other staff handed out white bags with meals. In the kitchen, staff organized the bags, adding fruit, vegetables and milk.
On Wednesday, Maryland’s largest school system opened 18 sites for free meal pickups. The county, Greer said, has already given out over 3,500 meals.
“Students need to eat, and food is essential for our students, no matter if they’re in school or if they’re out of school,” Greer said.
The pickup locations are predetermined, and are often schools where most students are eligible for free or reduced-price meals. The school system’s leadership meets on Zoom, to make sure all the sites are sufficiently staffed, Greer said.
County leaders seek assistance from cafeteria managers and workers, and once the time is determined, it gets shared with families through principals or other administrators.
The initiative is compliant with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National School Lunch Program, so the meals have to be distributed between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. On Wednesday, staff opted for a noon to 2 p.m. pickup, because “with the icy roads, we wanted to make sure that we had ample time for staff to get there and for our warehouse to do any deliveries,” Greer said.
The bags are filled with items that schools have on hand in their fridges or freezers. At New Hampshire Estates, that included baby carrots, milk, fruit and hamburgers with whole grain buns, Greer said. Families get instructions in multiple languages to make sure the food is consumed at the proper temperatures.
“My kids in the school have a free lunch, so I appreciate MCPS giving the parents this chance to take the food,” said David, a parent who picked up meals on Wednesday.
New Hampshire Estates Elementary is a kindergarten through second grade campus, Greer said, and they distributed almost 300 meals there Tuesday.
There aren’t any eligibility requirements, either. The student doesn’t have to attend the school where the meals are being handed out, and no ID is needed. If someone said they have four students under 18 in their household, “we give them four meals,” Greer said.
“We just want to make sure that these students are fed,” Greer said.
Some students get 70% to 80% of their weekly calories from school meals, Greer said, adding this week may be challenging for some because the snow days came after a weekend, and weekends typically see “a lot of food insecurity.”
A team of seven to 10 workers at the distribution sites aims to address that.
“This is a big help,” Manuel Martinez said through an interpreter, after picking up a meal.
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