Friday, April 26, 2024
Free summer lunches are now being served in Hood County, thanks to Granbury ISD’s Healthy Summer Meals for Kids program and Mission Granbury’s backpack bag initiative.
GISD’s summer meal program serves free meals to children ages 18 and younger, as well as enrolled students up to 21 years old with disabilities.
The six-week program runs in two parts: June 6 through July 1 and July 11-22, with a total of nine locations serving meals weekly during the two-hour window of 10:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.
"We've done it several summers in a row,” said Amy Whiteley, child nutrition director. “We are actually required by Texas Department of Agriculture to do 30 days of summer feeding because our economically disadvantaged percentage is over 50% in Hood County. We can opt out of it if we want to, but we don't want to because we know that kids need the food during the summertime.”
Locations for the sites include Montego Bay, Whippoorwill Bay, Sky Harbour, Oak Trail Shores, Western Hills Harbor, Granbury High School, Granbury Middle School and Mambrino Elementary. Each location will have a 30-45-minute window to serve food, depending on the location.
“If we can feed on a daily basis at every site 10 to 20 kids, then we’re doing good,” Whiteley said.
In the past, the program Healthy Kids would coordinate with GISD to host meal pickup sites. However, due to COVID-19, waivers were introduced, allowing for the children to pick up their meal and leave. Now, the program has gone back to pre-COVID rules, where the child has to stay and consume the meal onsite.
“We want to make sure that that kid is actually eating the meal and not taking it home for mom, dad, grandma, you know, a person that might be at home that would take the meal, possibly, from the kiddo,” Whiteley said.
Mike Corb, senior pastor with Granbury First Baptist Church, has recently volunteered to be the coordinator for Healthy Kids.
“It's very rewarding,” Whiteley said. “I know that there's so many kids during the summertime who don’t have access to a healthy meal, so being able to have different sites in the community, I think that's very beneficial for them. A lot of times, parents, they go to work and maybe they don't have that meal that they can get, or maybe the family isn't able to feed their kiddos during the summer like they would during the school year, so it brings joy to me to be able to provide a need for kids.”
Below is the weekly food schedule for the GISD Healthy Summer Meals for Kids program:
⦁ Monday – chicken sandwich, steamed broccoli, carrots, apple and a choice of milk
⦁ Tuesday – cheeseburger, pork and beans, carrots, 100% juice and choice of milk
⦁ Wednesday – chicken nuggets, green beans, carrots, orange and choice of milk
⦁ Thursday – steak fingers, steamed broccoli, carrots, 100% juice and choice of milk
⦁ Friday – bean burrito, corn, apple and choice of milk
For a complete list of the site addresses and serving periods, visit granburyisd.org/support online.
MISSION GRANBURY INITIATIVE
During COVID-19, Mission Granbury and a few other community organizations put together backpack bags filled with non-perishable food items that would sustain a child for the weekend.
As with the last two years, Mission Granbury has chosen once again to continue its weekend program into the summer for 2022.
“We provide the weekend backpack food for the high school, the STARS program and the Behavior Transition Center and then in the summer, we deliver backpacks to different centers,” said Andi Luna, Mission Granbury food pantry manager. “We'll do about 200 to 300 (backpacks) a week depending on the need.”
“The volunteers who come and pick up food from us at the high school will get bags for their individual (GISD) sites, so then when a kid comes to get lunch that Friday, they will also get a weekend bag,” Whiteley said.
Mission Granbury relies strictly on donations, so with food prices increasing, current donations are low.
"We try to make it easy because we don't know their situation at home,” Luna said. “We try to put ramen noodles, the microwavable mac and cheese. I try to get them something fun, you know, because they're kids, but then also some kind of protein to keep them going. We did get some juice boxes donated so that's gonna be a nice little treat for them. I'd like to be able to put more in there but right now, we just don't have the funds or the access. Some of the stuff we order, it's gonna take two or three weeks to get here or it's not in stock at all, so that's kind of the problem right now.”
To donate food items for the backpack bag program, you can drop by Mission Granbury at 3611 Plaza E. Court.
SCHEDULE
Free summer lunches are available Monday through Friday from June 6 through July 1 and July 11 through July 22 in Granbury ISD’s Healthy Summer Meals for Kids program.
The summer lunch sites and serving periods are listed below:
Montego Bay pool/park area
4511 Rhea Road
11:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
Whippoorwill Bay pool/park area
507 Skylark Drive
11-11:45 a.m.
Sky Harbour pool/park area
2707 Galaxy St.
11-11:45 a.m.
Oak Trail Shores pool/park area Tuesday through Friday
3002 Elmwood Dr.
12:15-12:45 p.m.
Oak Trail Shores Ruth’s Place
2723 Maplewood St.
11:30 a.m.-12 p.m.
Western Hills Harbor pool/park area Tuesday, Thursday and Friday
514 Mountain View Trail
12-12:30 p.m.
Granbury High School CTE Area: June 6 through July 1
2000 W. Pearl St.
10:45-11:15 a.m.
Granbury Middle School back courtyard: July 11 through July 22
2000 Crossland Road
10:45-11:15 a.m.
Mambrino Elementary cafeteria: June 13 through June 30 (Monday through Thursday)
3835 Mambrino Highway
11:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
