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Date: 6/15/2021
HAMPSHIRE COUNTY – With summer vacation around the corner, Hampshire Regional School District and Easthampton Public Schools (EPS) will continue to offer free meals for students and families.
After a brief break at the beginning of the summer, the EPS meals program will start again on July 6. According to Easthampton Superintendent Allison LeClair, the district will offer these meals normally on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for pick up at Easthampton High School and Maple Elementary School. Pick up will be available from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. on each of those days. When students come to pick up their food, they will receive enough breakfast and lunch to last seven days a week.
“The summer meals program will be operating under national waivers that have been in place throughout the pandemic,” said Dayle Doiron, the director of business services for EPS. “It is free to any youngsters from birth to age 18.”
Doiron added that there will be no application needed for students who want to pick up throughout the summer. If there are ever any transportation issues throughout the program, Doiron said that both Maple and the high school are on public transportation routes. “Each is also within walking distance of many neighborhoods,” she added.
The summer meals program will be a continuation of the Chartwells Meals Program that the district provided throughout the entire 2020-21 school year. Grab and Go meals were available at the high school and Maple on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. for much of the school year.
According to Carol Inman, the food service manager at Hampshire Regional High School, the Hampshire Regional School District will also continue their meals program throughout the entire summer.
“Weekly lunch pick-up will be available at [Hampshire Regional] High School on Mondays from 4 to 5:30 p.m. for any families that would like to take part,” said Inman. “It’s just a continuation of what we’ve been doing all year.”
The program will be available for anyone under 21 years old, and specifically for those students within the five school groups. Inman added that there could be other pick-up days throughout the summer since Hampshire Regional conducts other programs as well, but Inman said that this possibility is still up in the air. Students will receive a week’s worth of breakfast and lunch when they come to pick up.
“I think it’s really important for families who are still facing food insecurities, and that may be still out of work because of the pandemic” said Inman, when speaking on the importance of the district’s meals program. “I’m really glad that we can do this for families in the area.”
The food menus will change weekly throughout the summer for both the Easthampton summer meals program and the Hampshire Regional one.