REGION — The school nutrition program at Regional School Unit 9 launched its home delivery service of breakfast and lunch on Monday, Feb. 1, to reach remote learners with hunger needs. The newly purchased delivery van and part-time driver will travel to towns throughout Franklin County on a daily basis.

“We’re going to try to really promote this and make sure that everyone who needs a meal gets one,” Director of RSU 9 Food Services Andrew Hutchins said in a phone interview. “We’re always looking for opportunities to feed more children and if this really gets a little larger than we can handle with one delivery route, then we may reach out to volunteers and community members  to handle a few of these deliveries for us so we can consolidate our route.”

Hutchins has received more than 50 applicants from far-spread towns and may have to adjust the route so that some students receive a couple days of meals in less frequent deliveries. He is also hoping that only those who are unable to make it to RSU 9’s daily pick-up locations for school meals will take advantage of the program.

“One concern was that folks might opt for home delivery when they do have the ability to pick up and it helps us a lot if they can pick up because our district is very large and geographically speaking, it will take a lot time to get those deliveries made each day,” Hutchins said.

RSU 9 will continue to offer a 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. window for families to pick up pre-ordered meals at their students’ school by filling out an online form available at https://mtbluenutrition.weebly.com/. The forms are for logistical purposes only as school meals have been federally mandated as free to all students due to COVID-19.  

To truly reach those who are facing food insecurities during the pandemic, creative approaches are necessary Hutchins said, who added that this requires extra funding. Throughout this past school year, RSU 9 has applied to grants from Full Plates Full Potential, a Maine-based nonprofit group funding schools and organizations to address hunger needs in their communities.

A recent grant from Full Plates Full Potential helped fund the part-time driver position for RSU 9’s delivery service. In response to the pandemic, the nonprofit reorganized its funding structure and implemented an emergency fund to distribute seasonal grants for schools and organizations.

“Over the course of the last 10, almost 11 months at this point, we’ve given out over $1.3 million to schools and community organizations across the state, and that truly has been to get food where kids are,” Anna Corson, Director of Advocacy and Community Partnerships at Full Plates Full Potential, said during a phone interview.

According to the nonprofits’ data which is collected from the Department of Education and from Feeding America, a national network of food banks, 1 in 5 Franklin County children were living in a home with food insecurity prior to the pandemic.

“They’re projecting that to increase to about 27% of children, so from 1 in 5 to 1 in 4,” Corson said.

It has been difficult to fully assess the scope of child food insecurity during the pandemic since school lunches have been free without families having to provide any qualifying income information. In 2019, 48.6% of RSU 9 students were eligible for free school meals and based on this school year’s applications, that number has decreased to 38%.

Corson said that without any incentive to fill out paperwork, that number most likely does not reflect the actual hunger needs of students in the county. Instead, the data collected from foods banks provide a more realistic picture of food insecurities in the community.

“This school year, it has been really difficult to collect data from families for a lot of reasons,” Corson said. “So it’s harder to say that what we’re seeing this school year is a reflection of the true needs. We know that because of the pandemic, economic hardship on families has really increased quite a bit.” 

Statewide, Feeding America has projected that child food insecurity will increase by 40% during the pandemic, Corson said.

For Hutchins and his staff, the need has been obvious and they plan to continue brainstorming and pooling resources to ensure Franklin County students have access to food.

“I’m blessed with a very talented and supportive staff,” Hutchins said. “They all have the same vision in mind and that’s the hungry child just can’t learn and we want to make sure that we’re doing our part to help them along.” 

To register for the home delivery service, fill out the online form on the district website at https://mtbluenutrition.weebly.com/, or email foodservice@mtbluersd.org, or call 779-9720 between 7 a.m. and noon.

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