Capital District bring food to needy students

More than 85 percent of students in Capital School District qualify for free breakfast and lunch. And almost all of them take advantage of the federal program.

But that is usually only when students are in school. Education experts agree that before students can concentrate on learning, their basic needs must be met – in school and at home.

James Trower's philosophy is that if they can’t come to you, you go to them.

On Monday, the district's new food truck, which will bring food to students on days they are not in school, hits the streets for the first time.

As a participant in the Community Eligibility Provision program – a meal service option for schools in low-income areas – the district also serves lunches at schools and other locations throughout the summer.

For instance, last summer, the District set up each Wednesday at the Capital City Farmer’s Market on Loockerman Street to feed children under age 18.

Trower, supervisor of child nutrition for the district, said the summer program didn't get as much participation as officials had hoped. He hopes the food truck will help increase participation.

“Because kids are spread throughout the district, it’s hard for them to come to the schools offering the free lunch programs because there is no busing in the summer,” Trower said. “We thought we would reach out to the kids who can’t come to us.”

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Monday's trial run for the new truck is not only a way to gauge how popular the new service might be, it also is an advertisement of sorts for the Capital School District’s summer food program. District officials believe the truck will provide a way to fill the gap left by the Food Bank of Delaware cutting its free lunch programs in the Dover area.

The food truck – called Chef Senator’s – will make meal stops Monday at 11:30 a.m. at the Simon Circle housing development and 12:30 p.m. at the Manchester Square housing development. The menu on Martin Luther King Day – a day off for students – will be a soup and sandwich combo meal.

Trower said the food truck, which cost roughly $147,000 and has capabilities of serving hot and cold food, is funded by reimbursements from the National School Lunch/Breakfast Program.

The program allows the nation’s highest poverty schools serve breakfast and lunch at no cost to all enrolled students without the burden of collecting household applications. Instead, schools that adopt CEP are reimbursed using a formula based on the percentage of students participating in other specific means-tested programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).

There are more than 6,700 students in the district, of which 86 percent qualify for the free breakfast and lunch program, said Penny Westergren, child nutrition coordinator for the district. She said of those who qualify, about 85 percent participate.

“More students take advantage of the lunch program than the breakfast program, but we see most of the students participate in one or the both depending on the month,” she said.

Brittany Adams, the registered dietitian and the nutrition specialist for the district the past two years, would like to see all of the students eligible to take part in the free breakfast and lunch programs. She said there is a direct correlation between nutrition and better grades and test scores.

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“Research shows that kids who aren’t hungry miss less school and do better,” she said. “If they are thinking about how hungry they are, they won’t do as well in school. I think the CEP program is good because it allows students to have free breakfast and lunch without having to worry about paying for it.”

Lasting impressions

Before being elevated to jobs in the district office, Westergren and Trower were on the front lines dealing directly with students in the program. For Trower, those were bittersweet times.

“We saw kids come in who weren’t well-kept and who had clothes that were not in good condition. And some were so hungry,” he said. “But they could always count on a meal. It breaks your heart, but you are glad you could help them and offer them good, nutritious meals.”

Trower said on many occasions, he and the others working the food lines would be rewarded with hugs of appreciation.

The staff was also rewarded by kids trying and liking some of the new items on the menu. He recalls a time when apple crisp was offered and he would try to persuade students to at least try it.

“The kids saw oatmeal, so automatically they didn’t want to try it,” he said. “Once they tried it, most of them couldn’t wait until the next time it was on the menu. That’s a good feeling.”

From idea to reality

Trower said that Patty Cunningham, the former nutrition services supervisor of the Seaford School District, came up with the idea of having a food truck go to students. Red Clay School District also has a food truck.

“Patty had a vision for the food truck, and she saw very good results from it,” Trower said. “I thought this was an excellent idea and knew we could do the same thing and make it a success in our district. Other school districts have offered summer food programs for years. Patty’s idea caught on.”

Candace McCarthy, the public relations specialist for the district, said truck's look came from a “Design the Food Truck” contest that was open to all schools.

“When you see the truck, you will see that it displays the three students’ signatures who were involved in the design,” she said.

The gradient blue background with a chef hat on the Senator logo was designed by Jennifer Ewton, a Dover High School sophomore. The Chef Senator’s name was inspired by an entry by seventh-grade student Laura Therese Garcia from Central Middle School. And the “Fresh Food with A Groove” part of the name that is on both sides of the truck came from Fairview Elementary fourth-grader Lexi Cruz.

“So the truck’s name became ‘Chef Senator’s Fresh Food with a Groove’ with Jennifer Ewton’s artwork,” McCarthy said.

Reach Jerry Smith at jsmith17@delawareonline.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JerrySmithTNJ.