School breakfasts, lunches to remain free this year

FAIRFIELD – The U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued nationwide waivers to allow school districts and community organizations to extend their summer food service programs through the end of the school year.

This means the Fairfield Community School District, which is participating in the program, will continue to offer meals to all children ages 2-18 without charge. Fairfield School District Food and Nutrition Services Director Stephanie Hawkins said the district joined this program when the coronavirus hit last spring.

'Because we had a summer food service program previously, we were pre-approved to join this,” Hawkins said. 'We were able to start feeding kids two days after they shut down the state.”

The summer food service program normally just runs when school is not in session, but the coronavirus changed that by creating a special circumstance where kids continued their education but not in the classroom, and thus never getting a chance to eat at the cafeteria. Hawkins said she hoped that kids might be out of school for a few weeks and then go back to regular school lunches, but that's not what happened.

The cooks served summer lunches from March 19 through Aug. 5, then took a few weeks off to prepare the kitchens for the start of another school year. During that time, the district served 92,000 meals.

The USDA covers the extra expense to make the meals free. In fact, the school receives sufficient reimbursement from the federal government that the district makes money when more kids participate. That's why Hawkins has been trying to get as many kids as possible to eat breakfast and lunch at school.

Hawkins said the food service was in good financial shape earlier this year after being $36,000 in the hole a few years ago. In fact, it had climbed out of the hole altogether and was in the black, but the budget has taken a hit this school year because of the hybrid model. Since fewer than half the student body was in the building on any given day, the district didn't serve as many meals. Instead of serving 1,000 a day like it used to, it was serving closer to 500.

'We are seeing a pinch in our revenue,” Hawkins said.

That's changed somewhat in the past month when elementary students returned to fulltime in-person courses on Oct. 5, so the number of elementary students eating breakfast or lunch on a given day has gone up. The middle school returns to fully in-person classes this week, too, which should help the food service's finances.

The district has about 300 students who are doing fully online courses, but they're being fed, too. Those families can sign up to collect meals every week at the middle school. They receive five breakfasts and five lunches per child.

Inside the school buildings, meals are served differently from a normal year. Students receive disposable trays that are sealed since the meals are often transported to their classrooms instead of being consumed in the cafeteria. At Washington Elementary School, classes rotate between eating lunch in the cafeteria and eating it in their homerooms. At Pence Elementary School, the district added more tables so kids could more easily socially distance from their peers.

'Our cooks have risen to the occasion, and they miss seeing the students,” Hawkins said. 'I'm so proud of the work they've done through COVID and through this school year with all the changes.”

For enrolled students, they can take advantage of these free meals during the following times:

Fairfield High School: Breakfast from 7:30-8:30 a.m.; Lunch from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Washington Elementary School: Breakfast from 8-8:30 a.m.; Lunch from 11 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.

Pence Elementary School: Breakfast from 8-8:45 a.m.; Lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Open to all children, whether enrolled in the district or not, is Fairfield Middle School, which serves breakfast from 7:45-8:30 a.m., and lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.