Schools close 4 free-meal sites

Summer breakfast and lunch programs had poor attendance, officials say

By: By Kim Underwood | JOURNAL REPORTER
Published: July 08, 2009

Four sites in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school system's summer free breakfast and lunch program have closed because of poor attendance.

Free meals are no longer being served at Carter Vocational High School, Mineral Springs Middle School and Kernersville and Walkertown elementary schools.

"They just didn't draw the people we hoped they would," said Theo Helm, a spokesman for the school system. "The overall attendance is up."

Last summer, about 2,000 students a day participated in the program. This year, he said, the average is about 2,500.

"We would still like to see more," Helm said.

About 10 percent of the eligible students are participating in the program. At the end of the school year, about 22,000 students were receiving free lunches and about 3,400 were receiving reduced-price lunches.

The four dropped sites were not used last year. They were added this year, Helm said, in part because officials thought that given the poor economy, there might be more demand for the program.

Transportation may have been an issue for some of the students, Helm said. The school system does not -- and cannot -- provide bus service to the schools serving breakfasts and lunches, he said. The Salvation Army provides transportation from its clubs to some sites, and those sites are doing well.

Meals will continue to be served at Carver High, Cook Elementary, Easton Elementary, Forest Park Elementary, Griffith Elementary, Hall-Woodward Elementary, Hill Middle, Latham Elementary, Lowrance Middle, North Hills Elementary, Old Town Elementary, Petree Elementary, Philo Middle, South Fork Elementary, Speas Elementary and Wiley Middle.

Since June 22, Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools and Chartwells School Dining Services have been serving free breakfasts and lunches at 20 local schools to students up to age 18. The meals are paid for by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as part of its National School Lunch and Breakfast Program.

The program will continue through Aug. 14. Breakfast is served from 8:15 to 8:45 a.m., and lunch is served from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

For more information, call the school system's Child Nutrition Department at 336-771-4526 between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

■ Kim Underwood can be reached at 727-7389 or at kunderwood@wsjournal.com.