Gilmer's Seamless Summer meal program continues to feed the county's youth.
The Gilmer County School System’s director of nutrition, Patricia Partin, shared the latest numbers at last Monday’s board of education work session. Boxes provided contain 14 meals, and during four dates in June, a total of 29,274 meals were distributed.
“I will tell you, in my entire existence with school nutrition, I’ve never seen these numbers throughout the whole summer, much less in one month,” Partin said. “So it’s been tremendous. We have two sites, and the Larry Walker Education Center (LWEC) site is a continuous flow. I mean, when we get started (at 3:30 p.m.), it doesn’t stop until 5:30 p.m. So it’s just been amazing. It’s been great.”
This year's format has proven more successful than the one used in years past. Meals were previously distributed around midday, four days per week and 10 meals were offered in total. Now the GCSS distributes meals once per week beginning at 3:30 p.m. Partin also noted meal boxes now contain seven frozen meals and seven shelf-stable meals.
“We’re getting a lot of feedback on who likes what and the reasons for that,” Partin said. “That’s a lot of information we’re going to take forward to polish up and plan for next summer. I don’t foresee us ever going back to the way we did it before because we’re meeting so many more needs by distributing food after hours so parents can come get them.”
Original plans called for a break in meal distribution for the first week of July. However, volunteers came through once again, and food boxes were provided July 3.
“We all came in and handed out food at one location, and we had a tremendous turnout as well,” Partin said.
Meals were provided July 9 and 16, and the final day of the program will be tomorrow, July 23.
Meals will be available at the LWEC and Clear Creek Elementary School from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Meals are for anyone 18 and under, and a parent or guardian must pick up the box.