Since March 16, the Washington Court House City Schools’ (WCHCS) “Big Blue Bus” Summer Food Service Program has served 251,397 free meals.
The meals are served to kids ages 0-18 at stops across Washington Court House, Jeffersonville and Bloomingburg.
“Using no local tax dollars, this is only made possible by the use of federal grants and private donations as well as the help of our incredible volunteers,” explained Trevor Patton, WCHCS director of marketing and communications.
The Big Blue Bus is funded primarily through a federal grant through the United States Department of Agriculture as well as private donations from local partners such as SugarCreek and McDonald’s of Fayette County.
When Governor Mike DeWine announced that schools across Ohio would move from in-person to emergency remote learning last spring, WCHCS prepared to not only educate their students from a distance but to also continue providing nourishment.
“Thanks to the hard work and ingenuity of our incredible team, we were fully operational on the first day of the shutdown, providing a hot lunch and next day breakfast for kids across our county for free at no cost to the local taxpayers,” said Patton.
WCHCS received accolades early on in this pandemic from Ohio First Lady Fran DeWine for its efforts to help fight hunger and provide nutrition while also educating during the unprecedented times.
“This would not have been possible without the dedication to our students by our amazing staff,” said Patton. “In addition to overcoming the obstacles of teaching in a very different environment, our teachers stepped up to volunteer during their lunch hour to feed their students. Our food service teams came together to prepare food for over 1,000 kids a day, and our transportation department drove carefully and efficiently to get food to our kids in a timely manner.”
“The staff of WCHCS cares deeply about all of the kids in the Blue Lion Family, and it has shown throughout these past few months,” said Patton.
The rest of this week’s menu includes: cheeseburgers on Wednesday, Calzones on Thursday, and PB&J on Friday.
All meals come with a fruit, vegetable, milk and a next-day breakfast.
To donate or volunteer for the Big Blue Bus, visit www.wchcs.org/bigbluebus.
