Curbside Lunch Pick-up Doesn’t Stop National School Lunch Week Celebrations

National School Lunch Week (NSLW) looks pretty different this year for Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Public Schools (NC) as K-5 students won’t be starting in-school classes until October 19. The district has been running a curbside meal pick-up operation to coincide with distance learning, but they haven’t given up serving nutritious and delicious meals for their students! ECPPS is offering prepared meals that are shelf stable or heat-and-eat selections for middle and high schoolers.

Curbside pick up has included components for a week’s worth of delicious and nutritious school meals that could be assembled by parents and students to enjoy at home. When parents picked up food up on Mondays, nutrition staff gave one hot lunch for the day and then the ingredients for meals for the rest of the week.

According to Tammy Rinehart, SNS, director of school nutrition, students are receiving coloring sheets, mazes, word games, etc. in their meal packs to celebrate National School Lunch Week this week. They are also getting printed recipes for preparation of Farm to School meals featuring local produce that provided in take-home meals.

“We are using our local farmer Meadstown Produce in Weeksville for in-season produce and utilizing the Farm to School program as much as possible,” she said. “Our school will be celebrating National School Lunch Week a bit differently this year, but it will still feature great recipes and everything they have come to love about NSLW. Next Monday we will have local sweet potatoes on the menu for the student’s first day back on campus!”