‘Seamless Summer’ combats hunger in our community
The Gilmer County School System kept students fed over the summer with the help of selfless volunteers.
Seamless Summer offered free meals to those 18 and under during all of June plus two weeks in July. At Monday’s board of education work session, director of school nutrition Patricia Partin and school nutrition coordinator Daphnie Hice revealed just how successful the program has become.
Over a six-week period in the summer, 12,726 breakfasts and 12,527 lunches were served for a grand total of 25,253 meals. Meals were offered at eight locations including the Bobcat Mobile Cafe. Additionally, each site held a weeklong STEM camp to engage students with fun and meaningful activities.
“Seamless Summer is one of the strategies used to combat hunger in our community,” Partin said. “Behind all these numbers, at any given time, we had a total of five school nutrition employees in the kitchen, and some days we had as little as three. We always had one of those employees go out on our Bobcat Mobile delivering food to our sites.
“We served 25,253 meals to the children of our community, and I’m super proud of that.”
School nutrition employees who were busy preparing and delivering meals included Sydney Eadie, Patricia Welch, Melissa Oliver, Lynn Herrington, Shelia Garmon, Jessica Keller, Dora Lazo de Martin, Ginger Leonard, Tammy Madley and manager Karen Pinson.
Site volunteers were Crystal Bates and staff of the Boys and Girls Club, Shawn Kilborn and Krista Garland of Sunlight Baptist Church, Steve Fields at Mulberry Street Apartments and Covenant Community Church, Trina Matthews and staff at the Gilmer County Health Department, Dianne Fowler at Tower Road Apartments and The Orchard Church and Marianne Evans of First United Methodist Church.
“It was truly a blessing to be a part of this amazing community,” Partin said. “I want to thank every one of our volunteers, staff and the community for their continuous dedication to the children of Gilmer County.”