School meal pickup times change
By Kathy Thomson
Recently the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture relaxed some of their requirements for schools serving meals to students during the COVID-19 pandemic, which allowed Albany cafeteria staff to make changes in lunch and breakfast pickup times and requirements.
One change is that the FNS has waived the rule preventing parents and guardians from picking up meals for their children, as long as the district protects accountability and integrity.
“The kids can come alone to pick up the meals if they want, or the parents can come alone,” said cafeteria supervisor Debra Boyett. “We know most everyone, so we know if they have kids in school. That’s one of the advantages of living in a small town.”
The cafeteria workers still need to know ahead of time how many meals to prepare.
“If they want food, they need to call the elementary office and leave a message,” said Boyett. “They don’t have to call every day; instead they can leave a message to cover an extended time period like ‘all week’ or ‘every day through the end of the semester’.”
Junior high and high school students can also obtain meals by contacting the elementary school office.
A “mealtimes waiver” by the FNS, intended to support access to nutritious meals while minimizing potential exposure to the novel coronavirus, has allowed the local district to provide both lunch and breakfast at the same time.
“We are serving once a day only, from 11:00 until 11:45 a.m., five days a week,” said Boyett. “We give them a sandwich lunch and a breakfast for the following morning. That way people only need to get out and come up to the school once a day.”
Boyett is hopeful that they will be able to provide hot lunches, like chicken nuggets or pizza a couple of times a week in the future, but said that right now they are primarily serving sandwiches for lunch. Muffins, yogurt, cereal, cinnamon rolls or other similar prepackaged items are sent home for the following breakfast.
“We think sending both meals home at the same time will help our breakfast count to increase and be easier on our parents,” said Boyett. “We miss seeing the kids and look forward to seeing them every day when we are back in school.”
