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 month, we heard from Sandra Brundage at Salamanca City Central School District, a rural PK-12 district inside the Seneca Nation of Indians Allegany Territory.
Tell us about your community. What makes the area special?
We are located on the Seneca Nation of Indians Allegany Territory. Our unique location affords us the opportunity to explore and learn about traditional Native American foods and serve them in some of our cafeteria food offerings.
What are some of the challenges (or barriers) that kids and families faces during the summer? How has implementing more flexible summer feeding options helped to overcome this?
100% of our students receive free breakfast, snack, and lunch during the school year. In the summer months, when school is not in session, food security issues arise in our community. This is our first year creating our own scratch-based summer lunches in our food service department and we are excited to be able to provide students and the community with fresh food during the summer as well as during the traditional school year.
What would you say to other program leaders who are reluctant to implement flexible summer feeding options such as grab-n-go, pick-up meals and home-delivered meals?
Do what works best for your community! We are offering as many options as possible to our community so that we can push back against the known food security issues we face in our district every summer.
How have kids and families expressed gratitude for flexible summer feeding options?
Once we put the word out to the community, we started fielding lots of great questions about the program. We are grateful for the No Kid Hungry funding, so that grab-n-go meals can be a part of our summer lunch program this year.
What keeps you motivated to do this work?
It truly takes a village to raise our children. If we all pull together to take care of each other, our community is stronger because of it.
At No Kid Hungry New York, we thank Sandra and the food service staff members at Salamanca City Central School District 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!