Counting your blessings – one canned good at a time.
That’s how Brian Kiehl saw it when he learned of the Commodity Supplemental Food Service Program, which is a component of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
It’s an outreach branch of the USDA that offers various food items that may be purchased by public entities, such as school districts – as part of their ongoing outreach for students from economically disadvantaged households.
Next week, right before Thanksgiving, the district is offering a food distribution from the USDA program for Mon County students and their families.
It takes place from 10 a.m. to noon Tuesday in the parking lot at South Middle School, said Kiehl, who directs child nutrition services for the district and is helping organize the giveaway.
The bulk-size “family meal packs” include a one 24-ounce can of beef, a 50-ounce can of chicken, a 5-pound container of peanut butter and one can apiece of peaches and peas, both in the 110-ounce size.
No I.D. is required and students don’t have to be present for the giveaway, which is one pack per family.
“We just want to be able to help people,” he said.
Even with its relative prosperity, there are more of those households in Morgantown and Monongalia County that need help putting food on their tables than one might think, the nutrition director said.
Which means that while the district does offer free lunch, it isn’t always enough to quell growling bellies.
Of the more than 11,000 students enrolled in Mon Schools last year, 20% of them – or 2, 240 – experienced food insecurity on a regular basis, according to Feeding America and other sources.
That’s an actual, socioeconomic benchmark. To be “food insecure” means you are not taking in enough food to sustain yourself, nutritionally.
The key driver for next week’s distribution, he said, were the instances of families whose benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program were put in jeopardy by the government shutdown.
