One of nine food pantries in the Greeley-Evans District 6 located at Chappelow K-8 Arts Magnet School. By the end of 2025, all schools will have food pantries. (Courtesy/District 6 Nutrition Services)
Greeley-Evans District 6 schools are increasing food access to all students while decreasing food waste in the kitchen with sustainable food pantries.
Between 65-70% of families in the school district qualify for free or reduced lunches, according to Kara Sample, assistant director of nutrition services at District 6. That number is expected to be even higher because it only considers families who filled out applications.
“Our students can’t learn; they can’t focus in the classroom; they can’t achieve academically if they’re not well-nourished,” Sample said.
“The Pantry,” a welcoming space with snacks and meals, is located at Chappelow K-8 Arts Magnet School, Centennial Elementary School, Greeley West High School, Salida Del Sol Academy, Ann K. Heiman Elementary School, Maplewood Elementary School, Jackson Elementary School, Brentwood Middle School and Prairie Heights Middle School.
The Success Foundation facilitated the pantries as part of its Food4Success Campaign. Julie Hill, executive director of the Success Foundation, said work started on the nine pantries in May and continued throughout the summer.
Christ Community Church funded Maplewood’s pantry, and The Weld Trust funded the other eight, and Sample said. The initial funding went directly toward infrastructure and equipment, including adding a refrigerator, a freezer, shelving and rolling carts at all locations.
No student is deemed ineligible for the food pantry program — opening up access to every student and their families. Whether a child needs temporary help or is struggling with long-term food insecurity, there is no paperwork, applications, criteria nor questions asked to gain access to food.
This has been a huge relief to families, according to Hill.
“The messaging behind our food pantries is that we don’t want our families to struggle if they do have a lack of access to nutrition,” Sample said. “That is a location that is open to them, no questions asked, to ensure that they do have food at home.”
More pantries are on the way. The district is installing another 12 pantries in schools this year, according to Sample. By the end of the 2024-25 school year, the last 12 locations will be completed, and all schools will be equipped with pantries.
The Weld Trust is funding the infrastructure needed for the remainder of the pantries.
School lunch stigma changed
The recent development of nine fully operational food pantries at schools is an extension of the nutrition service’s dedication to feeding its students.
The stigma attached to school lunch created a literal line, according to Danielle Bock, director of nutrition services at District 6. Prior to the pandemic, Bock said distinguishing which kids needed lunch and which didn’t was straightforward: kids who needed a meal were standing in line, and the kids who didn’t were eating lunch from home. This has changed.
“During the pandemic, we saw that stigma and that line erased entirely,” Bock said. “We thought it was going to take decades to sort of rework the whole system, and it didn’t. It happened overnight.”
Luckily, students at District 6 have been fed for free since 2020, Bock said. This began when U.S. Department of Agriculture waivers were put into place during the pandemic, which eliminated school meal costs regardless of whether a family qualified for free or reduced meals.
Once those waivers ended, school lunches were heading back to the norm, those who qualified got a free meal, and those who didn’t had to pay, according to Sample. However, the Board of Education voted to continue covering the cost of all students.
During this past school year, Sample said, Colorado voters passed Healthy School Meals For All, state legislation that began in the 2023-2024 school year to cover the cost of the families that don’t qualify.
Colorado is the only state in the nation where the voters chose to provide universal school meals to students, according to Bock. And the legislation is here to stay.
“Now, it’s just this even playing field where all kids eat for free,” Sample said. “It’s just a regular part of the school day.”
Staff were serving about 14,000 meals a day within the early stages of all students eating for free, according to Sample. Throughout the pandemic, when the waivers were in place, she said that number increased to about 19,000 meals a day.
Over the past school year, the district served about 22,000 meals a day, Sample said.
Even with food lunches covered, the need to further food access inside and outside school halls persisted, so staff are working to keep pantries fully stocked with a long list of food items.
How will pantries stay stocked?
To maintain stocking and sustainability, District 6 hired a food pantry specialist, who came on board in March. Her job involves working with community organizations, churches and partners to receive monetary support to purchase food items for the pantries.
The food pantry specialist is working to maintain consistency among the pantries while also tailoring to the individual needs of school communities, Sample said. Typical food pantries have a wide variety of items, especially canned goods and nonperishable items, including granola bars, apple sauce, rice, pasta, ramen, peanut butter, milk, beans, soup and more.
“There’s a need,” Hill said. “This gives them a readily accessible source of nutrition that they may not have otherwise.”
Other community members and organizations have been a big help in keeping the pantries stored, including fundraising by the Downtown Development Authority. In August, several downtown businesses donated a percentage of sales to raise $4,500 for the program, according to Hill.
The best way for community members to contribute to food pantries is through a monetary donation. Donations are accepted through Food for Success by going to www.d6successfoundation.org/food4success.
“It’ll be an ongoing effort to make sure that they’re sustainable,” Hill said. “I think we will continue to need our community’s help to keep them going.”
Nutrition Services is also taking a sustainable approach by repackaging food from schools that would otherwise go to waste and making it available at the pantries.
“These pantries serve as an outlet, so we can decrease the waste in our school kitchens,” Sample said. “Any food items in surplus at the end of service, obviously still safe and high quality, we are able to redistribute back. It’s kind of a one-two punch.”
A typical school meal has to meet certain standards, which include incorporating a grain item, a protein item, a fruit, a vegetable and milk, Sample said.
District 6 especially prides itself on offering better access to food as well as food made from scratch with nutritional value and a taste that many kids enjoy, Sample said. Thanks to a production kitchen that has an executive chef and a team of eight to 10 employees, the district also uses local produce and beef as part of the district’s Farm to School program.
Leftover food items made for the school day are then handed off to the food pantries, helping to reduce food going to waste and feeding students and their families at home.
“We’re really excited about this project,” Hill said. “We are very grateful to the community for making it happen.”
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