School cafeteria providing thousands of meals a week

The Flatrock-Haw Creek cafeteria understands the food insecurity in our community as well as anyone.

Shanon Pittman, director of Food Service for the school district, says that the cafeteria provides food for lots of students that would otherwise struggle. Those students were one of the worries when school did not reopen after Spring Break. How would those students find enough food to keep them healthy? What about their families? That’s why the cafeteria staff have been providing Grab N’ Go Meals for the community since March 23rd.

The meals are provided on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. They are distributed via a curbside service in front of the school. Pull up in line, a volunteer will ask you how many people that you are feeding, and the food is placed in your car. It’s a very simple and streamlined process. On Monday, two breakfast and two lunch meals are provided for anyone who comes through. On Wednesday, two more breakfasts and lunches are distributed. On Friday, one breakfast and lunch are handed out, for a total of 10 meals per week.

“The response has been tremendous. We weren’t really sure what to expect, but we are obviously providing a service that people need,” said Pittman.

The school is distributing approximately 4,000 meals per week, meaning lines of cars are being efficiently served three times a week through a well-coordinated effort. Some of Pittman’s cafeteria staff are doing all of the meal preparation and packaging. That effort takes place inside the school’s kitchen, which is inspected and designed to prepare hundreds of meals. Those meals are then taken outside where volunteers distribute the meals curbside.

“I try to keep the inside staff inside. If one of my workers gets sick, we would have to shut the whole thing down. But my staff is tired. This is hard work!”

Just like everyone has had to contend with shortages at the grocery store since the pandemic began, so has Pittman.

"I create a menu every week, and then I go to my wholesalers and place an order. I get back a list of everything that they can’t provide. I spend about three hours a week trying to rearrange and make substitutions.”

With such a sizable portion of our community depending on Grab N’ Go meals to help supplement their meal planning, the effort is well worth it. PIttman has plans to continue the Grab N’ Go meal service, but like so many other things during this time, future developments may change those plans in unforeseen ways.