For kids who receive school meals, the summer months can be the hungriest time of year. Emma Anne Hallman, School Nutrition Director of Haleyville City Schools (HCS), saw this need in her community and was determined to meet it. Within minutes of launching registration for her first site pick-up, Emma Anne was shocked to see tickets already sold out.
When asked why she is doing such a new program for the first time, Emma Anne explained that “We do this because hunger doesn’t take a summer break. Food insecurity doesn’t care about zip codes, test scores, or school calendars. It exists quietly in the background, and summer feeding gives us the chance to meet a very real need. It’s about doing what’s right even when it’s hard work.”
“We do this because hunger doesn’t take a summer break. Food insecurity doesn’t care about zip codes, test scores, or school calendars. It exists quietly in the background, and summer feeding gives us the chance to meet a very real need.”
With strong resolve and hope, the HCS nutrition team set out to feed their community for the first time. This summer, Emma and her team operated rural non-congregate feeding. With 7 distributions, every 10 days, they were able to serve 170,260 meals!
However, without many pivotal individuals and preparations, Emma Anne would not have been able to operate a successful, new summer non-congregate program. By taking a deeper dive into who and what is behind the scenes of this program, it becomes very evident why they were able to accomplish everything they did this summer.
A Community That Comes Together
Haleyville is like a small town community. With that comes tight-knit bonds, and a community that is always ready to help each other out: rain or shine.
Emma Anne’s strong relationships in house/in the school community provided her with many resourceful, skilled individuals to work with! Ron Harper, the school resources officer, and Steve Bryant, a handyman project manager (and former state trooper), collaborated with their work experiences to map out traffic flow and manage traffic to ensure the mobile sites ran smoothly. This made summer sites more accessible, and possible to reach even more families this past summer.
Luke Jenkins, HCS’ Maintenance Supervisor, also partnered with Ron and Steve to inform the mapping of sites and traffic. Simultaneously/Meanwhile, he was always making sure that the portable freezers and coolers brought in were working. Thanks to her talented teams’ support, Emma Anne was also able to create an informative, detailed graphic that improved traffic flow at sites to serve and reach more families efficiently.
Ron, Steve, and Luke are just a few of the many gifted individuals with diverse work experience on the HCS Nutrition team, and this has made all the difference in Haleyville’s program!
Local Champions
Although Emma Anne’s in-house support is amazing, the external support from the local community of Haleyville was just as astounding! Summer can be a hard time for school nutrition programs to find staff and enough support to meet the need. However, Emma Anne and her team partnered a lot with local community organizations, groups, churches, and more. This made the program sustainable and easier to run!
Beyond County Lines
Community support also went beyond county lines; surrounding counties offered support and guidance. Cacyce Davis, School Nutrition Director from Elmore County, encouraged Emma Anne to do summer non-congregate for the first time this year and provided invaluable insights. Beautiful collaborations near and far is a big reason why Emma Anne and her team could feed so many students this summer.
Conclusion Title TBD
In a message to sponsors on the fence about doing summer non-congregate next year, Emma Anne shared, “I understand the hesitation — new programs can feel overwhelming, daunting and another thing in our already busy work life. But take the time to visit a neighboring school district that’s doing it well (even go to another state!). See the process in action. Talk to the staff. Watch the kids’ faces when those meals arrive. Summer feeding goes beyond the meal — it promotes building healthier futures and a sense of security.”
“See the process in action. Talk to the staff. Watch the kids’ faces when those meals arrive. Summer feeding goes beyond the meal — it promotes building healthier futures and a sense of security.” -Emma Anne Hallman
