Schools extend lunch program
Stevens Forest Elementary in Columbia will run for 2 more weeks
Call it a second helping. Howard County schools is extending its summer lunch program at Stevens Forest Elementary School in Columbia by two weeks, a move officials say reflects the high attendance — and high demand for the services.
The county launched this year’s summer lunch program in June, and it was originally slated to end Friday. The three other locations for the program — Harper’s Choice Middle School, Murray Hill Middle School and Thomas Viaduct Middle School—are now closed for the summer.
School spokesman Brian Bassett said that Brian Ralph, director of food and nutrition services for the system, had been considering extending the program for some time, and made the decision for Stevens Forest last week after determining they had enough administrators and staff to support the program over the next two weeks.
Bassett said the county chose to extend service at Stevens Forest because it was the program’s most popular location. Locations for the program were based in part on the percentage of students who receive free or reducedprice lunches during the school year.
Almost 70 percent of students at Stevens Forest receive free or reduced-price lunches, according to data from the school system.
This was only the program’s second year to offer meals at four location sites, and it is expected to surpass the more than 50,000 meals served last year, Bassett said.
Some in the community had raised concerns about the month-long gap in service if the program ended Aug. 4.
Students do not go back to school until Sept. 5.
Bernadette Allen has been bringing her grandchildren and others in the neighborhood to Stevens Forest for lunch almost every day this summer, and had wanted to see the program extended, saying that she and others in the community would even be willing to volunteer to staff it if needed in order to keep the service open.
Allen said she’s seen high turnout at the program, and was worried about how those kids would be fed after the end of the program and before school starts. All Maryland schools will start after Labor Day this year.
The extension of the weekday program is the latest addition to the county’s food security initiatives. In June, Howard County schools partnered with County Executive Allan Kittleman’s office to launch the Weekend Warrior Snack Pack Program to distribute backpacks of food to students every Friday in an effort to bridge the nutrition gap kids may face over the weekend.
One of the program’s two locations is at Stevens Forest; that program runs
The county launched this year’s summer lunch program in June, and it was originally slated to end Friday. The three other locations for the program — Harper’s Choice Middle School, Murray Hill Middle School and Thomas Viaduct Middle School—are now closed for the summer.
School spokesman Brian Bassett said that Brian Ralph, director of food and nutrition services for the system, had been considering extending the program for some time, and made the decision for Stevens Forest last week after determining they had enough administrators and staff to support the program over the next two weeks.
Bassett said the county chose to extend service at Stevens Forest because it was the program’s most popular location. Locations for the program were based in part on the percentage of students who receive free or reducedprice lunches during the school year.
Almost 70 percent of students at Stevens Forest receive free or reduced-price lunches, according to data from the school system.
This was only the program’s second year to offer meals at four location sites, and it is expected to surpass the more than 50,000 meals served last year, Bassett said.
Some in the community had raised concerns about the month-long gap in service if the program ended Aug. 4.
Students do not go back to school until Sept. 5.
Bernadette Allen has been bringing her grandchildren and others in the neighborhood to Stevens Forest for lunch almost every day this summer, and had wanted to see the program extended, saying that she and others in the community would even be willing to volunteer to staff it if needed in order to keep the service open.
Allen said she’s seen high turnout at the program, and was worried about how those kids would be fed after the end of the program and before school starts. All Maryland schools will start after Labor Day this year.
The extension of the weekday program is the latest addition to the county’s food security initiatives. In June, Howard County schools partnered with County Executive Allan Kittleman’s office to launch the Weekend Warrior Snack Pack Program to distribute backpacks of food to students every Friday in an effort to bridge the nutrition gap kids may face over the weekend.
One of the program’s two locations is at Stevens Forest; that program runs
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