(Courtesy: Warrick County School Corp Food & Nutrition Dept)
HENDERSON, Ky. (WEHT) – The Warrick County School Corp Food and Nutrition Department has asked for people who have signed up for a meal kit to pick up their food.
Officials say it is important that people make every effort to pick them up. If someone knows they cannot pick up the meals, to please call the Food and Nutrition Department at 812-897-1341 as soon as possible so the department can give those meals to a family on its waitlist. Officials note, they are not in the office on Wednesdays due to meal distribution.
The Warrick County School Corp Food and Nutrition Department says over the last few weeks, it has had over 7,500 meals that were not picked up. The numbers are:
- June 26 – 1,770 meals unclaimed
- June 19 – 920 meals unclaimed
- June 12 – 2,090 meals unclaimed
- June 5 – 2,880 meals unclaimed
Officials explain they are unable to obtain federal reimbursement for any meals that are unclaimed so people not picking up meal kits has a significant impact on department funds and ability to continue this program. But most importantly, this takes meals away from those that were not able to sign up because sign-ups were full which means less of the community’s children were able to receive these meals.
A spokesperson says, “We will continue to send reminder emails every Tuesday to those who are signed up to receive meals. Please be sure to set a reminder to yourself to pick up the meals or contact us if you can’t.”
The Warrick County School Corp Food and Nutrition Department further explains SUN Meals To-Go is a USDA program which involves strict rules and regulations. The department opened a waitlist option so that if meals are not claimed during the daytime pick-ups, it can call waitlist families and offer the meals to them at its evening distribution at BMS from 4 to 6 p.m.. The department says it does fill those openings each week, however, when individuals don’t pick up the meals in the evening, officials can no longer call waitlist families because the “approved” meal distribution times have passed.
The Warrick County School Corp Food and Nutrition Department says it had requested an additional meal pick up the following day, as it was allowed to do during the pandemic, however, it was not approved due to the updated federal regulations. Officials say they are trying to come up with alternative solutions to this issue and currently have a call in to the USDA.
The department says for now, it can only encourage anyone that signed up to pick up their meals and fill any openings with its waitlist families.
A spokesperson for the department posted, “We truly appreciate everyone’s understanding and hope we can come up with a solution that benefits as many families as possible moving forward.”
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