COLDWATER – Coldwater Community Schools provided a record 44,415 meals for its students this summer, according to Tamara Santora, director of Chartwell Dining Services.
The system provides meals to students under a contract with the school district. Chartwell operates the county’s most extensive restaurant system, with 30 employees in six buildings.
“(The summer program) is based on the saying, ‘Hunger never takes a summer break,'” Santora said.
Santora said that as part of the summer school program in June, students at Coldwater High School and Lakeland, Max Larsen and Jefferson schools were served community meals in the morning and at noon.
The Meet and Eat meals were open to anyone who wanted to bring their children for breakfast and lunch. At lunch, “you only had half an hour in each building to be able to come in, sit down and eat,” she explained.
“Unfortunately, many people decided against it because it was too much effort,” she added.
In July and August, the student meal program transitioned to a weekly drive-thru that takes place on Mondays at 11:45 a.m. in the Legg Middle School parking lot.
Cars formed lines early in the parking lot and further south down Western Avenue, sometimes even extending beyond Hatch Avenue.
Anyone responsible for children under 18 could request a meal box containing seven breakfasts and seven lunches for each child. The children did not have to be students at Coldwater Community Schools.
The program, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, distributed 38,880 meals in 2023.
The boxes contained non-perishable products such as cereal and granola bars for breakfast. There were also hamburgers, hot dogs, corn dogs, chicken patties, pizza and similar foods.
“We packaged frozen foods with instructions on how to reheat them properly,” Santora said.
New this year were fresh fruits and vegetables in bulk. During several weeks, the food service distributed pints of cherry tomatoes, 1-pound bags of carrots, 1-pound bags of green beans, 1-pound bags of mixed leafy greens, and 1- or 2-pound bags of zucchini.
Other weeks the program distributed three-pound bags of apples, and one week it was two large grapefruits.
Santora said, “We tried to give our kids as much fresh produce as possible,” much of it sourced locally and from the surrounding Michigan area.
Santora said the program also helps the 10 employees who come in to pack meals during the summer. “They’re actually getting at least some of their paychecks at a time when they wouldn’t otherwise get a paycheck at all.”
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For more information about the program, visit Chartwell’s Coldwater Schools Facebook page.
Contact Don Reid: [email protected]
