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‘How Do We Feed the Kids?’
How a Sacramento school district scrambled to feed students when schools closed
At a time when so many of us feel utterly useless, it can help to instead feel inspired by others and what they do — on a regular basis, but especially now — to take care of America’s children. This is why I wanted to talk to some of the food service professionals who ensure that the 30 million kids who rely on school meals get fed every single day during the pandemic.
Despite being busier than ever, three of these incredible people spoke with me in late April about the work they’re doing. (I was connected to them via FoodCorps, an organization whose mission is to connect kids to healthy food at school.) Here’s the first, with Vince Caguin, director of nutrition services for the Natomas Unified School District in Sacramento, California.
KB: When the schools in your district closed, what was your first thought? Was it panic?
VC: Panic, yes. We went from sending a notice of closure at 11:30 a.m. on March 12 to opening up five sites in 24 hours. I think after we sent out the closure message to the community, I said, “Hey, let’s do an emergency meeting.” I had no idea what I was gonna say, like, “Hey, we’re gonna close: There’s this waiver that I think the California Department of Education filed for. Let’s see if we can get something approved to start tomorrow.” And then we were able to pull off feeding kids within 24 hours.
Were there even any days that you weren’t able to serve meals, or did you just go from one program to the other?
It literally went from one to the other. I think the first response was, “Oh man, we’re closing,” and right after that it was like, “How do we feed the kids?” And March 13, there wasn’t a best practice, nor was there legislation or rules on how to do this thing. So it’s like, how do we do this — with social distancing, with a supply chain that’s kinda limited, with face masks, with all these things that keep changing.
Can you tell me a little about the supply chain problems, since that’s a big part of what’s made everyone so nervous?
When we did ordering earlier in the month, that week of Friday, March 13, we were planning our regular meal…
