In Fremont City, Ohio, in the heart of Sandusky County, summer is a busy time of year. Even when school is out for the summer, Child Nutrition Supervisor Jessica Michel and her team are in full swing preparing all week for Mondays.
Each Monday, from 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM, the high school became a hub of activity. Here, families can pick up five days’ worth of meals, carefully packed with a mix of cold, frozen, and shelf-stable items, including bulk milk to take home for their children for breakfast and lunch each day of the week.=. The operation is a marvel of efficiency, staffed by a dedicated team of food service workers, and bolstered by volunteers and the community.
The community’s appreciation is palpable every single time. Each week of their service, cars begin lining up nearly two hours before the distribution starts, a testament to the program’s importance. This is the district’s second year serving meals in a pick-up location, and continuing this program was critical for Jessica when she started in her role in December. A former kindergarten teacher in the district, she knew how critical these meals were to ensuring students started the school year off on the right foot. However, continuing the success of year one came with its challenges, particularly around staffing and capacity building. With a grant from No Kid Hungry, the district was able to support their staffing for this program to meet the demand they were expecting. And not only has the program grown from serving 400 kids a week in summer 2023, to 625 kids this summer.
With a huge operation over such a short distribution window, it’s critical that their distribution runs like clockwork. With staff all being assigned a station, one staff managing traffic with police support and calling out numbers, and Jessica at the helm to ensure paperwork is all tracked, the program runs efficiently and effectively. And their team members have time to see and check-in with all of their regulars that they see each week to ask how their summer is going. They all say it’s a heartening reminder of the community’s need for the program.
The summer meals program in Fremont City is more than just a distribution of food. It’s a symbol of hope and unity in a community, and the hard work of a fantastic food service team that makes it all fall into place week in and week out.