MSBSD Summer Food Service Program delivering meals to families throughout the borough

Students and families may be enjoying the summer break, but that doesn’t mean that the need to feed children goes away. The Nutrition Services Division of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District (MSBSD) has been hard at work with its Summer Food Service Program, delivering a week’s worth of breakfasts and lunches to families throughout the Borough.

“This is a meal program that is “non-congregate” or in other words “Pick-Up” meal boxes that consist of a weeks’ worth of breakfast and lunch meals,” says Dian Russo, Director of Nutrition Services for MSBSD.

“It’s been awesome,” says Kayla Patarini, Registered Dietician for the MSBSD. “We are very fortunate to be able to do this.”

“I design the menu to meet the federal guidelines,” says Patarini. “I put together a menu of the items, with shelf items and freezer boxes with colder items.” The shelf boxes can contain packages of cereal, produce, snacks like raisins or graham crackers, while freezer boxes may have packages of milk, cheese, bread, and other cold products.

She says five to six employees work at the central kitchen, putting together the boxes, while others work at the different locations, offloading the boxes and help get the meals to waiting families.

Workers with the Nutrition Services Department estimate the deliver over 1200 boxes throughout the valley, more than double previous summer meal programs. One possible explanation is the change in delivery. In years past, families had to bring their children every day to the schools to receive breakfast, then lunch, eating the meals at the site. This year, families can drive up and receive boxes for the week.

“It is first come, first serve. We try to make as many boxes as we possibly can, but we will are limited,” says Patarini, who says they have already doubled the number of boxes they had previously planned.

The program is made possible through funding from the USDA, for families living in rural communities, such as the Mat-Su Borough, where meals can be hard to access, and is open to any family in the Borough, not just with students enrolled in the school district.

The program is only those in the community who are 18 years old and under. One set of boxes per child, and either the parent or guardian must be there to pick up, or the child themselves needs to be present. Another person can pick up for someone else’s child, but they must bring the child in person and will be given a meal box to the child.

There are four pick-up locations: Tuesdays at Su Valley Jr/Sr High School, from 10-11:30 a.m.; Wednesdays at Sutton Elementary School, from 9-10:30 a.m. and Palmer High School, from 12-2 p.m.; and Thursdays at Wasilla High School from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The program runs until July 31, and families can pick up boxes only once a week, on a first come, first serve basis.