GM continues serving free meals through IU5 summer program

Posted on June 12, 2020, in Lancer Life

General McLane School District won’t stop serving the community free meals when the school year ends.

The district is taking part in the Northwest Tri-County Intermediate Unit Summer Food Service program for the first time this summer. The program is an extension of the national free and reduced lunch program provided across the country, including in Erie and Crawford county school districts during the school year.

From late March through June 12, GM cafeteria workers were preparing and handing out meals at General McLane High School to any family that requested them in response to the COVID-19 shutdown.

That service will continue thanks to this program, which kicks off on June 15.

GM has never qualified for the food service program, which normally requires at least 50 percent of the district’s population be enrolled in the free and reduced lunch program. The IU5 Summer Food Service Program was opened up to all districts this year in response to the hardship and uncertainty many families are facing now due to the COVID-19 shutdowns.

“It was something (Superintendent) Mr. Scaletta was really interested in,” said GM program coordinator Carrie Piccinini, who also serves as the school nurse at Edinboro Elementary. “We said we would absolutely give it a shot.”

Meals will continue to be distributed at General McLane High School, 11761 Edinboro Road in Edinboro.

The program will be held twice a week, Mondays and Wednesdays. GM volunteers will serve meals prepared by the Fort LeBeouf School District cafeteria staff.

The food service program provided more than 80,000 meals to students and families the summer of 2019 and is expecting upwards of 120,000 meals served for this summer.

All children 18 years of age or younger may participate. No child that meets that age criteria is turned away, according to information from the IU5.

Participants will order one week at a time on the General McLane website, www.generalmclane.org, and may pick up two lunch/snack combination meals on Mondays and three lunch/snack combinations on Wednesday. The order form can be found here.

After the first week of the program, the District may offer delivery service for families who do not have the means to pick up meals based on need.

The Sumer Food Services Program is a federally-funded program operated nationally by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and administered in Pennsylvania by the Department of Education.

A total of 45 GM volunteers will each work a two-hour shift to serve the community weekly. Each GM volunteer will undergo a mandated one-hour training before serving.

“We are hoping for this to be a huge success,” Piccinini said. “We’re seeing the need for something like this to continue in our district and we are happy to help.”