FeedWells has partnered with Memphis-Shelby County Colleges to assist maintain youngsters fed over the summer time. | Picture courtesy of Flyght Studios
Whereas summer time break brings enjoyable and pleasure for a lot of college students, for some, it may additionally include the fear of the place their subsequent meal will come from. College students at Memphis-Shelby County Colleges Memphis in Tennessee, nevertheless, received’t miss a meal this summer time because of a feeding program being placed on by FeedWells, a foodservice supplier primarily based out of Memphis.
FeedWells first started working with Memphis-Shelby throughout the early days of COVID-19 to assist present emergency meal service whereas the district was shut down.
“We obtained a name from their management workforce asking for our help and that’s what truly launched us into constitution and personal faculties,” says FeedWells CEO BreAnna Boyd.
As we speak, the meals service supplier continues to work with the district to maintain college students fed throughout the summer time months and has additionally partnered with different organizations locally to combat meals insecurity.
Placing college students on the middle of menu planning
When getting down to develop the menu for its summer time feeding program, FeedWells determined to base its choices round scholar suggestions.
“We truly discovered it very useful if we contain our college students within the menu planning,” says Boyd.
College students are requested to fill out a fast survey which asks them questions on their menu preferences. One of many questions that has been most useful to the workforce, Boyd says, is asking college students to choose one nation whose delicacies they want to see on the menu.
“That is been our strongest device that we have had,” says Boyd.
For instance, when the survey revealed that the majority college students chosen Mexico as their reply, the workforce determined to supply a themed Mexican meal, full with a mariachi band and passports that college students obtained after they entered the cafeteria.
A worldwide-themed menu primarily based on the survey knowledge on is now supplied month-to-month to college students.
Contemporary from the farm
New to this system this 12 months is recent produce sourced from two 10-acre farms situated in Ripley, Tennessee. FeedWells determined to spend money on the farms earlier this 12 months to have simpler entry to native components.
“With the foodservice business, generally it is laborious to get recent produce simply primarily based on who your vendor could also be and so we needed to tackle that initiative on our personal,” says Boyd.
Due to the farms, the foodservice supplier now has entry to recent leafy greens, berries, oranges and extra. The produce has already made its manner into meals this summer time, the place it has been met positively by college students.
“Our college students are very vocal. I am going to inform you that,” says Boyd. “They observed the distinction proper off the bat.”
Along with receiving recent produce, the farm additionally permits college students to take part in farm-to-school actions together with visiting the farms to satisfy the farmers and studying learn how to develop their very own meals.
Preventing meals insecurity
Whereas FeedWells’ house base is in Memphis, Boyd says the corporate has already expanded to New Orleans and is constant to search for different alternatives to develop going ahead.
One space for potential progress is the supplier’s earlier than and aftercare meals program which it launched in partnership with theYMCA of Memphis and Boys and Women Membership to offer earlier than and aftercare meals to college students.
“We simply added one other, like, 5,000 plus meals final week,” she says. “So that could be a good program that we’re operating, and we’re trying to develop that in different markets additionally.”
Wherever the FeedWells workforce finally ends up subsequent, Boyd says the corporate’s core objective of combating meals insecurity will stay the identical.
“Our focus is to essentially function one other useful resource to handle meals insecurity,” says Boyd. “As a result of, as you already know, not each youngster receives a meal at house, proper? And so, that is why we began the corporate, to essentially function a useful resource and to fight meals insecurity.”