JPS offering free meals in June to combat summertime hunger ...Middle East

The cafeteria workers knew her only as “grandma.” Every morning, the elderly woman would bring her grandchildren to Key Elementary School off McDowell Road for a free bite to eat. 

She wasn’t the only one getting kids out of the house, recalled Latosha Travis, a Jackson Public Schools child nutrition manager working with the district’s summer feeding program who oversaw the cafeteria at Key last year. 

“Kids gonna eat you out of house and home during the summer,” Travis said. 

Starting this week through June 27, anyone under 18 years old can stop by one of 12 schools in Jackson for a free breakfast from 7 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. and lunch from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., regardless of whether or not they attend Jackson Public Schools. Adults can buy a meal for $4. 

The district’s federally funded program, now in its 33rd year, is intended to combat the rise in hunger that occurs during the summer, an issue of particular concern in Jackson, where the childhood poverty rate is just over 40%. 

“I put a little extra on their plate from time to time, knowing this is the only meal many of them will have today,” Travis said. 

JPS anticipates serving 18,000 breakfasts and 25,000 lunches this month, said Marc Rowe, the district’s executive director of child nutrition. He noted this is a different program from the one Mississippi opted out of last year due in part to a lack of funding from the state’s welfare agency. 

“Just like anything else in the climate we live in, at any point the funding could be pulled for this,” Rowe said. 

The district doesn’t track who is eating the meals, only how many are served. Travis, who has worked in the district’s cafeterias for 16 years, said schools situated in neighborhoods are more likely to serve families during the summer. 

“It depends on the location,” Travis said. “You see a lot of them come off the street with their children and cousins, little nieces and little babies and stuff. They all come through the line.” 

Many of the meals will be served to children enrolled in local daycare centers or attending JPS’s summer camps, such as one that started this week at North Jackson Elementary School near the Tougaloo community. The program is limited to June due to JPS starting its school year earlier this year at the end of July. In prior years, the district served meals through mid-July.

Around 7:45 a.m., kids walked in with sleepy faces and colorful backpacks half the size of their bodies. Teachers said good morning and asked if they were eating breakfast, which was a sausage, egg and cheese burrito with taco sauce, a Pop-Tart, and orange juice or milk. 

Diamond Harris, who had brought a group of students for breakfast from the daycare at Caiden’s Christian Academy, said she sometimes cooks for her kids, which can be a heavy lift. “So it’s definitely beneficial for us and less stressful, and we are just really grateful,” she said.

The meals are based on USDA recipes, and the district also works with a food company, Walker Quality Services, to serve children healthy meals, Rowe said. When school is out, students might have junk food as their only option, which is why research has shown that as hunger spikes in the summer, so does obesity. 

“So the meals are very attractive, appetizing,” Rowe said. 

As part of her menu planning, Travis said she tries to introduce kids to food they haven’t tried before. Each meal comes with a fruit. Today it was plums for breakfast and watermelon for lunch. 

“A lot of kids don’t really know what a plum is,” she said. 

But it can be a challenge to get children to try food they aren’t used to, Travis said. During the school year, she’s at Green Elementary School off Hanging Moss Road, but she’s managed cafeterias all over the district, including at high schools. 

“Elementary children are more easy going and sweet and they love to eat,” she said. “High school students, they are very, very picky. They like a lot of hamburgers and fries. When you put down spaghetti you have to convince them to try. They’re used to fast food.” 

She also tries to feed kids meals from different cultures, so lunch at North Jackson tomorrow will be General Tso’s chicken and rice. 

Meals are available from 7 a.m.-8:30 a.m. and 11 a.m.-1 p.m at the following JPS Summer Feeding Program schools: 

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