BEREA, Ky. — For more than 80% of children enrolled in Berea Community Schools, the breakfast and lunch they receive during the school day is free. Once the schools went to virtual learning, Berea Community Schools worked with non profits in the area to create a meal program for those in need.
“In March, whenever all the kiddos were in the building for school still about 87% of those were eating free breakfast and lunch during school hours so when school closed. It was definitely like well, 87% of kids households and we're budgeting to have up to 10 meals per day at the school system,” Grow Appalachia Berea Kids Eat Coordinator Martina LeForce said.
On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, families can drive to Berea Community School to pick up a free meal between 12 - 2 p.m. Some of the meals might include foods from different restaurants like Subway or Hitz BBQ and produce from gardens throughout the community.
“We recognized early on that our school kitchen was not going to be able to keep up with the number of families that were coming through our lines so we started reaching out to local restaurants like his barbecue subway and native bagel to see if they would be able to provide some meals for us,” LeForce said.
Friday morning, the Berea Kids Eat organization created over 270 special Christmas Food boxes that included enough meals to get families through Christmas break.
“That's including local pork local chicken. And also local eggs and smoked meats. And then, of course, probably, 16 different produce items, as well as some grain products. So, yeah, we're looking to probably get out about 10,000 meals in total,” LeForce said.
The meal program is open to any families with children under the age of 18 in surrounding areas. Berea Kids Eat will be taking a break for the holidays but will resume their meal services on January 4th 2021, outside of Berea Community School.