A Westfield Public Schools food services employee delivers meals to a family at Abner Gibbs Elementary School March 25, 2020. (HOPE E. TREMBLAY/THE WESTFIELD NEWS)
Updated April 16, 2020
WESTFIELD – Although remote learning will take a break during spring recess April 20 – 24, the Westfield Public Schools breakfast and lunch grab and go meals will continue in all four locations through next week.
The meals are handed out at Franklin Avenue Elementary School and Westfield Middle School every weekday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and at Powdermill Village and Colonial Pine Acres apartments from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Meals will not be distributed at Abner Gibbs Elementary School.
“We think it’s important to continue feeding the students, and providing that option for families,” said Superintendent Stefan Czaporowski. He said during the April break, Food Services Director Rachel Kania will continue to work.
“She’ll have support from the custodians and some of the kitchen staff. All of our Central Office staff has offered to help as needed. She hasn’t needed us yet, but the offer stands,” Czaporowski added.
“In talking with my staff and with Stefan, we all decided that there is a very high need for meals, regardless of it being April vacation. During these uncertain times, we wanted to make sure that kids are fed through vacation, and Patriot’s Day, too,” Kania said.
The meal program is now serving between 800 and 900 grab and go lunches and breakfast a day. “A lot of it depends on the weather. When it’s nice outside, people are more willing to come out. Even on rainy days, the numbers go down a little, but not by many,” she said.
“We’ve never refused anybody. If we’re out at a specific location, we send them to the next location. That’s only happened to us about two times; on nice sunny days, when a lot of people come out,” Kania added.
Kania said their vendor, Thurston Foods, has been very accommodating, and they’re more than willing to deliver any day of the week that food is needed. She said to date they’ve only had to get one small order to supplement the product they had in the schools, where she said they keep a few weeks of emergency storage.
Kania said before they made the decision to continue, they were waiting for approval from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to see if they would be reimbursed for the week, which they received.
“The reimbursement doesn’t cover the cost of producing the food, unfortunately; we usually have supplemental income from kids paying for meals. We’re paying our staff the entire time that we’re out, which is what we elected to do,” Kania said, explaining that Food Service is a separate, self-sustaining business that doesn’t take money from the city.
“We did a quick financial analysis. We’ll squeak by. We decided to pay the staff so they didn’t have to be furloughed or go out on unemployment, and because of that, reimbursement won’t pay for everything. I have faith that we’ll eventually catch up to where we were before,” Kania said.
She said everybody on the staff is healthy and happy and being very cautious to watch for symptoms and stay safe. She said they are taking extra precautions, extra sanitizing, and changing of gloves. “We’re upping those precautions, but we do that normally. It’s second nature to the staff,” Kania said.
The Westfield Boys and Girls Club will also be continuing to serve grab and go dinners at the Boys & Girls Club, Franklin Avenue Elementary, Powdermill Village Apartments, Edgewood Apartments and Colonial Pine Acres from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. for youth ages 2 to 18. Currently, they are serving 325 dinners a day, according to Chief Advancement Officer Bo Sullivan.
“Regardless of what happens, even if they shut the schools down, we’ll continue to serve food. We will also continue through the summer because we’re the vendor for the Boys and Girls Club,” Kania said.
