When the pandemic hit last Spring, Hamilton County Schools School Nutrition Services team charged forward, led by School Nutrition Director and Dietitian, Kristen Nauss. Thanks to the waivers put in place by the USDA, Nauss was able to quickly change gears and start serving meals to students when schools were shut down. With the help of volunteers, the transportation team was able to deliver many meals to families in need, who also had the option to pick up 7 days’ worth of breakfast and lunch meals.

As the school year ended and summer began, the option to continue the summer meal program was available. Although HCDE had never served summer meals, they had known they would like to start—maybe on a small scale. They did everything but start small. Last summer, Hamilton County Schools was one of the school districts to see the largest increase in meals served in the entire state of Tennessee.

They were able to forge strong partnerships with other meals sponsors such as the YMCA to fill in the gaps to make sure children were able to access meals in every area in the county. The school nutrition staff who had never had the option to work during the summer and typically would have to go find another job during those months now were able to continue working their regular job where they were comfortable and knew they were feeding the children meals they needed.

As School Year 20-21 started back up, there were many unknowns as children had several options to attend school at home, in-person full-time or on a hybrid schedule. The school nutrition team had to adjust their program again to make sure every child had an option for school meals no matter where they were learning. That is when Ms. Nauss reached out to No Kid Hungry to learn about the grant opportunity. Hamilton County School Nutrition department was awarded $81,000 to purchase upgraded technology and point of sale machines to track meals, yard signs to alert the community of where to pick up meals, insulated bags/coolers and ice packs to keep food at appropriate temperatures and a walk-in and reach-in refrigerator to be able to meet the demands of the schools’ curbside options for parents to pick up meals.  The staff in many schools even adapted their meal pick-up time to evenings one day a week to allow working families to pick up meals after work. Teachers and principals adapted to serving meals in the classroom and minimized large groups in the cafeteria and for the most part, it has been smooth sailing! In fact, at least one school hopes to continue with their Grab-and-Go breakfast to the classroom model.

As the school year winds down, the school nutrition team is ramping up for another exciting summer with about 40 schools serving summer meals at the Summer Reach Camps as well as options for families to still pick up the 7 days’ worth of breakfast and lunch meals throughout the county.

We would like to give a huge shout out to all the wonderful staff in the Hamilton County School Nutrition Department! We know that because of their dedication and hard work, many children and families would not have been able to succeed during this challenging time.

One of the parents shared these remarks, “I am a single mom of 3 boys ages 6, 3, 1. I also am the caretaker of my grandmother. I home school the boys during the day and care for my grandmother 24/7. So, it has been very hard for me to get to the store as much as I need for the boys. 

Having meals delivered has and continues to help me out in these very tough times. I really don’t know what we would have done without the wonderful cafeteria staff from Hixson High making sure the boys did not go without food. Also, the meals were very convenient to prepare during my busy day. 

Again, Thank you so much!!”

Ms. Nauss summed it up well when asked what her advice would be when working through a pandemic and as with anything, she said, ‘Always look for the champions. Whether in your department, your school or your community. Find the people who believe in the mission and empower them to take responsibility to do good.’

Join us in thanking the champions at Hamilton County School Nutrition Department!