COVID-19 means school food programs are finding new ways to get food to hungry kids

Efforts are underway to ensure children and youth who are doing online learning continue to receive a nutritious meal during the school day.

Patti McNaney, associate executive director of the Social Planning and Research Council of Hamilton (SPRC) said thatbetweenMayand September, boxes full of nutritious food were given to food banks for delivery to families.

"It was called a buddy box initiative that families with school-aged children got on top of the other foods that they were allotted from the food bank," McNaney told CBC News.

"The goal [was] that the students could still get the same nutritious snacks and meals during the school day in order to learn."

Hamilton TastebudsStudent Nutrition Collaborative partnered with sevenlocal food banks/emergency food access programs and MZ Foods one of theStudent Nutrition Program food vendors on the initiative.

Weekly orders of either pre-packaged Buddy Boxes or bulk food were delivered to food banks and distributed to families.

Funding for this initiative was provided through Breakfast Club of Canada's Emergency COVID-19 Response Fund and the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services.

Participating locations:

• Eva Rothwell Centre.
• Mission Services of Hamilton.
• Neighbour to Neighbour.
• Niwasa Kendaaswin Teg.
• Salvation Army Dundas.
• Salvation Army Hamilton.
• Stoney Creek Community Food Bank.

McNaney said they are now looking at other ways to address the children and youth working from home through partnerships and donations.

"Over 80 per cent of students went back into the school room and another cohort can go back after Thanksgiving, so we're going to be looking at how to support the ones that don't go back after that," McNaney said.

"We were partnering with the food banks right up until [two weeks ago] and now we're looking at new ways to do that because most of the children are back at school."

Last year, meals were delivered to 30,000 students on a daily basis, McNaney said.

It was not immediately clear how many meals are currently being delivered, but McNaney said the numbers have most likely gone down because the programs are just starting.

Programs modified due to new health and safety protocols

Meanwhile, McNaney said the programs have had to be modified due to new health and safety protocols because of COVID-19.

"There is no longer food preparation on site so the programs have moved to a model of pre-packaged food items that are brought up to classrooms in bins and the students help themselves to the items," McNaney said.

The food packages include yogurt, individually packaged muffins and cheese strings.

Another big change is that volunteers are not allowed in the schools anymore as they limit the number of people who enter the compound.

School staff are running the programs at the individual schools.

"The programs are rolling out slower this year so not all have yet started up," McNaney explained.

"Some, because of the restrictions, have gone to less days, but the goal here is to have the programs up and running to full capacity. It's just been a slower start, trying to respond to the new protocols.

"However, the schools are very committed to having the nutrition programs up and running to full capacity as much as they can," McNaney said.