Welcome back to our blog series, the No Kid Hungry New York Partner Spotlight. We’ll be speaking to our partners across the state, learning what’s new in their summer meals programs, and celebrating the tremendous work they do to ensure that more kids have access to the the fuel they need to learn, grow and thrive. This week, we heard from Nicole Foster at Salmon River Central School District, a rural district in northeastern New York.
Tell us about your community. What makes the area special?
The Salmon River Central School District comprises 6 small rural towns. We are nestled at the foot of the Adirondack Mountains and are part of the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation. Our rural community is primarily farmland and woods with beautiful bodies of water. Our student body is approximately 1400 students. We are so fortunate to have a diverse area to live in.
What are some of the challenges (or barriers) that kids and families face during the summer? How has implementing more flexible summer feeding options helped to overcome this?
Our area is the poorest county in New York State so our families face many challenges when it comes to being able to have the financial means to ensure that their children are able to have well balanced nutritious meals throughout the summer. For our district, being able to have the waiver for non-congregate feeding in a rural area has helped ease the worry of food insecurity.
If you could tell everyone in America something about summer meals, especially flexible feeding options (e.g. grab-no-go, pick-up meals, home-delivered meals), what would you tell them?
We were so grateful for the grab and go meal pickup waiver. It allowed parents the flexibility to pick up meals for their children during their lunch breaks. Many kids would have gone without a nutritious lunch if the grab and go was not available because our area is so rural that many could not walk the distance to get a lunch. We are happy to report that because of this we had four feeding sites that served 12,980 lunches.
How have kids and families expressed gratitude for flexible summer feeding options such as grab-n-go meals, pick-up meals and home-delivered meals?
The parents and kids were so happy to receive kid friendly meals and look forward to it continuing in years to come. We even received pictures and cards of gratitude.
What keeps you motivated to do this work?
My main goal is to ensure that we feed the kids in our community who otherwise may not have a hot lunch. What keeps me motivated is seeing their smiling faces everyday and knowing that we are making a difference.
At No Kid Hungry New York, we thank Nicole and the food service staff members at Salmon River for their dedication and enthusiasm in feeding kids throughout the summer. We’re grateful to support their work and honored to shine a spotlight on their extraordinary program!