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School lunch, courtesy of Metro Creative
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, school nutrition programs were among the first entities to spring into action. Macon County Schools staff members spent the last few months of the 2019-20 school year riding busses around the county to deliver bagged breakfasts and lunches to make sure no child went hungry because they couldn’t come to school. Over a year and a half later, Macon County Schools is still doing everything they can to make sure the pandemic doesn’t keep them from feeding kids, and they’re getting some significant help from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Funds (ESSER II).
In September, the North Carolina State Board of Education approved a $10 million allocation of ESSER II funding to cover expenses related to the recruitment and retention of school nutrition staff. Macon County Schools director of child nutrition David Lightner says the county’s allotment from that funding will be about $31,000. State Superintendent of Public Education Catherine Truitt recognizes that competition among employers for qualified food service staff is at a premium amidst the pandemic and the challenges of working in school nutrition have grown at the same time, so she hopes this money can help school systems stay competitive in the job market.
“The work of North Carolina’s school nutrition teams over the past year has been nothing short of remarkable,” Truitt said in a release following the funding allocation. “Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, school nutrition personnel went above and beyond to provide meals to students, whether that was through extended hours or home deliveries. We know this $10 million dollar allotment will be a critical resource to support districts as they look to recruit and retain additional school nutrition personnel to meet the needs of our students.”
Lightner went before the Board of Education at their last meeting and suggested that the $31,000 be put towards a one-time retention bonus for cafeteria workers. The board approved the expenditure and acknowledged the extra work those employees have taken on in the last year and a half. Superintendent Chris Baldwin says they’ve seen how quickly staff quarantines can wreak havoc on food distribution – a lack of available employees isn’t a problem that they want to risk having.
“We’ve had principals, we’ve had other staff, [Associate Superintendent Josh] Lynch has served meals,” Baldwin said. “This staff in the school system has pulled together to make sure that our kids have been fed throughout this pandemic.”
Lightner says the challenges facing school nutrition programs run deeper than holding on to employees. Issues with hiring all up and down the supply chain have caused food shortages and raised the cost of food by anywhere between 10% and 55% depending on the item. Fewer delivery drivers also mean a greater risk of late deliveries and more suppliers are requesting that customers decrease their order sizes, all of which has led to some desperation plays by schools to put food on the table.
“There have been school systems that have had to resort to ordering over 100 pizzas from restaurants weekly,” Lightner said. “There have been school systems asking parents to feed students at home before they come to school. School systems are buying from grocery stores, Amazon and other big box stores.”
There’s still no end to the pandemic in sight, so hopefully this influx of funding will be enough for Macon County Schools’ nutrition program to keep going strong for the foreseeable future.
“We have been able to handle all of our challenges extremely well,” Lightner said.
In anticipation of Thanksgiving, the Macon County Board of Education will meet early this month. Their next meeting will be on Monday, Nov. 15 at 6 p.m. in the boardroom at the Macon County Schools Central Office.