FLOYD, Va – According to the Federation of Virginia Food Banks, food insecurity continues to rise in the Commonwealth, up to 11.1 percent statewide.
School divisions are combating the issue with the use of ‘CEP.’ The Community Eligibility Provision allows schools to feed many more children in a more efficient way. No less than 25 of the school districts in our area are eligible to provide meals at no charge.
A case in point: Floyd County Public Schools. They started with the CEP program in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the strategic plan of providing free meals for all.
Superintendent Dr. Jessica Cromer tells me they’ve seen a 15 percent increase in the number of children being fed thanks to the program. CEP continues to be streamlined, now with a threshold of 25 percent “identified in need” to qualify and less paperwork. Floyd County sees nothing but positives from the lunchroom to the classroom.
”Our families don’t have to complete the forms—the full or reduced forms. There’s no stigma coming through the lunch line. Nobody’s turned away for not having enough money on their account or given an alternative lunch. There’s no unpaid meal accounts. It’s really been positive for us, positive for our families. They don’t need to worry about packing breakfast and lunch, it’s provided for our students warm and fresh every day. We definitely feel like it’s been a huge positive impact on our students and on our greater community but, in particular. in the classroom. More students are getting breakfast and more students are getting lunch. We actually run a second chance breakfast at the high school and it is out the door. The line is out the door every day,” Floyd Co. Schools Superintendent Dr. Jessica Cromer says.
This week (October 14-18), just happens to be National School Lunch Week, with the theme ”school lunch pirates..find your treasure.”
The USDA has many nutritional requirements tied to school lunches. In Floyd, it was ‘Wellness Wednesday’ when we dropped in. What I learned was the day lunch includes a special item as Floyd’s Director of Food & Nutrition explains.
“It’s an educational program, and it gives the kids a chance to try something new, so today we’re doing organic rainbow carrots that are roasted. They get to try these carrots and they also get to learn about carrots. For instance, the orange carrot was the last of the carrots to be developed, and that was in the Netherlands in honor of the House of Orange and that was in like the 1800s,” Director of Food & Nutrition Aaron Bauer says.
Floyd works hard to locally source as much food as possible, including Wade’s orchard’s and Wood’s produce.