Warsaw Community Schools is seeing an increase in students participating in free or reduced lunches.
Stacie Light, director of the Food Services Department, told the Warsaw School Board Tuesday that WCS was able to offer breakfast free to every student this year who wanted it. Last year, the school corporation averaged 1,300 breakfasts a day. This year, the school corporation is averaging 1,800 breakfasts a day.
Light said WCS has seen an increase in students requesting free or reduced meals because there is less of a stigma around it. She said there has been increase in participation at the high school, which she said is really good for the students.
Lunch is also up this year. Last year, they weren’t breaking 1,000 free or reduced meals a day for lunch. This year, the school corporation is breaking 1,100 lunches a day.
WCS has a partnership with Metzger Orchards in Claypool. Beginning in August, all of the apples the school corporation uses will come from Claypool. There were about 268 cases for the fall, with 29 cases each delivery.
Another program that the Food Service Department signed up for is DOD (Department of Defense) Fresh.
About $85,000 is allocated for fresh produce through DOD Fresh instead of using the money on canned produced. Light said WCS was able to offer students watermelon, strawberries and corn on the cob.
Due to the winter months, a lot of the school corporation’s options are limited because DOD Fresh will not let the Food Service Department order anything that is not a domestic product, so Light said she is hoping the options pick up in the spring.
Five Warsaw schools were involved in the pilot program, and Light said she just signed up all the schools for the program for next year.
The Food Service Department is planning its summer menus. Light said the school corporation might be able to do grab-and-go meals, where eligible students are able to pick up lunches and breakfast for the next morning.
Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert asked how the DOD factored into the program.
Light said she didn’t know the ins and out of it, but said she knew it was a governmental program.
“Our services are pretty much covered by the (United States Department of Agriculture) and they had this thing called DOD Fresh,” she said.
Board Vice President Randy Polston, who is also executive director of Combined Community Services, said there was incident where CCS was given food they didn’t have room for. He asked Light if, in cases like that, if CCS would possibly be able to give the food to the Food Services Department.
Light said she didn’t know why not, as long as there was proper paperwork of where the food came from and what it is. She did say she will double check that information.
Chief Financial Officer April Fitterling said Polston brought up a good point in asking about giving food to WCS because the Food Service Department has a lot of requirements they have to go by.
In other business, the board:
• Voted for Heather Reichenbach to remain as board president, Polston as vice president and Elle Turley as secretary.
• Affirmed the school board of ethics.