Fairfield school board looks to increase meals

FAIRFIELD - The Fairfield Community School District Board of Education met Monday and among their agenda items was a review of the food service department's finances.

Food Services Director Stephanie Hawkins has said that participation in the district's meal program is far below a normal year. In November, when the district was doing all virtual classes, she said 400 students had signed up to receive take-home meals. During a normal year, the district would be serving about 1,100 students.

During Monday's meeting, school board member Frank Broz asked Superintendent Laurie Noll how concerned the board should be about the food services' financial shape.

'Concerned,” Noll replied. 'The main thing we need is to have students taking lunch or breakfast. Every time one of those meal bags goes out, we get $30 [in reimbursement] to our program. We are down on the amount of students eating our meals, so that's definitely [cutting] into her funds.”

The district was in an all-virtual mode from Nov. 16 to Dec. 12 but has been in a hybrid mode since then, where half the students come to class while the other half do their studies online. Noll said now that the students are back eating lunch in their building, she hopes more will eat school lunches, which in turn helps the district's finances.

Broz suggested one way to increase participation was to make it easier to sign up for meals. He wondered whether students could sign up for the meals for a longer period than one week at a time, like a recurring subscription.

'If we can squeeze another 30-40 meals a week, that could make a big difference,” Broz said. 'And the food is great, so everyone should sign up. My kid loves it.”

Noll said she would speak with Hawkins about Broz's ideas.

'Anything we can do to help that program, we want to do,” Noll said.

Broz said that when he talks to his friends about this issue, he mentions how people get takeout at their favorite restaurants because they want to see them survive.

'The same is true for our biggest restaurant in the county, our school nutrition program,” he said. 'They need customers to be supported, and that's a way people can help.”

Children can sign up for the free meals if they are between the ages of 2-18. They do not need to be enrolled in the Fairfield Community School District to qualify. She said even people traveling through can pick up a meal.