Long before families arrived to pick up their weekly summer meal boxes, Hickory City Schools School Nutrition employees were already hard at work, preparing, packing, loading, and transporting thousands of meals to make sure children across the community had access to nutritious food while school was out.
By the end of the summer, that work added up to an impressive number: 99,597 meals served to children across the Hickory community.
This summer marked only the second year of Hickory City Schools’ Summer Nutrition Program, which provided no-cost meals to children from birth through age 18.
Behind those nearly 100,000 meals was a team of just 14 School Nutrition employees. For some employees, distribution days meant working 12- to 13-hour shifts on Thursdays, preparing meals, packing boxes, transporting food, and serving families.
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“I am incredibly proud of our School Nutrition team and what they accomplished this summer,” said Christy Gwyn, Director of School Nutrition for Hickory City Schools. “Serving nearly 100,000 meals takes an enormous amount of work behind the scenes. Our staff put in some very long days, but they kept coming back each week ready to do whatever was needed because they knew those meals were going home to children in our community.”
Unlike summer nutrition programs in some rural school districts, Hickory City Schools face an additional logistical challenge. Because HCS schools are not located in areas that qualify for rural meal distribution, the district cannot simply prepare and distribute its weekly take-home meals from school campuses. Instead, the School Nutrition team prepares the meals and then transports them to qualifying distribution sites in the community.
Weekly meal pick-up was offered from May 28 through August 13 at Hickory Crawdads Stadium and Henry Fork River Park. The district also provided on-site meal service at Patrick Beaver Library and Ridgeview Recreation Center.
Meal offerings rotated throughout the summer and included frozen, bulk/fresh, and shelf-stable, giving families a variety of options while children were away from school. Keany Produce supplied fresh produce, while PET Dairy provided fresh milk.
Making distribution easier for families
Hickory City Schools also introduced a new system this summer designed to make the large-scale distribution process faster and easier for families and employees.
Families registered their children in advance and received a QR code to bring to meal pick-up. Staff could scan the code when families arrived, quickly verify the number of registered children, and distribute the correct number of meals. The system helped reduce wait times while providing the School Nutrition team with a more efficient way to manage the high volume of meals distributed each week.
Registration was required for weekly meal pickup, with one registration completed per child.
Summer Meals Program earns national spotlight
The innovative approach to summer meal service has also gained national attention. Hickory City Schools was selected by No Kid Hungry to be featured in a national storytelling campaign highlighting the district’s Summer Meals Program.
On August 6, a No Kid Hungry team visited Hickory to film and photograph the meal distribution process, capturing the work of HCS School Nutrition employees and the district's unique approach to reaching children throughout the summer.
The resulting story is expected to be featured nationally on No Kid Hungry’s website and social media channels next summer and may also be used throughout the year as part of the organization’s fundraising and advocacy efforts.
The recognition provides an opportunity for Hickory City Schools to share not only the impact of the nearly 100,000 meals served this summer, but also the people, partnerships and innovative practices that made the program possible.
A community effort
While Hickory City Schools School Nutrition employees carried out the enormous task of preparing and distributing the meals, community support also played an important role.
Throughout the summer, community partners provided lunches for School Nutrition employees, a gesture that was especially meaningful during the team’s longest preparation and distribution days.
“This program truly takes a team, and we are incredibly thankful for everyone who helped make it possible,” Gwyn said. “From our community partners and the organizations that welcomed us at distribution sites, to family members who volunteered their time on distribution days, so many people played a part in making this program successful. Most importantly, we are grateful that families trusted us to help meet their children’s needs during the summer months. Every one of those 99,597 meals represents a child we had the opportunity to serve, and that is what makes this work so meaningful.”
The summer effort required countless hours of planning, preparing, packing, loading, transporting, and distributing meals by a small team committed to serving children.
In just its second year, Hickory City Schools’ Summer Nutrition Program continues to demonstrate how the district’s commitment to students extends beyond the classroom — and beyond the traditional school year.
99,597 meals. Four community locations. Fourteen School Nutrition employees. One summer of serving children.
