Food Services
Food Services
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The Food Services Department continues to expand healthy options and introduce new food options for students. Students are involved in the process as they get to sample and offer feedback on new products being considered for the menu.
To address food insecurities in our community, the Westerville City School District participates in the federally-backed Summer Food Service Program. Through this program, hot meals are provided daily and free of charge to all eligible children when schools are on summer break during the months of June and July.
People are often surprised to learn that the local, state and federal tax dollars provided to fund schools are not used to pay for school food. School districts’ child nutrition departments are financially independent of their school districts and operate as self-sustaining, not-for-profit entities. In Westerville, as these funds allow, they are also used to help improve kitchen and serving layouts, as well as fund the purchase of equipment necessary to run a modern kitchen operation responsible for serving thousands of meals each day.
Keeping Children Nourished During the Pandemic
While continuing to educate students was the top priority of district officials during the height of the pandemic, keeping children fed was also a critical task. The district’s Food Services Department, along with their colleagues in the Transportation Department, stepped up in a big way to meet these priorities.
The district’s Food Services and Transportation departments worked closely to develop a plan to deliver meals to children while in remote learning. There was a tremendous increase in demand when the federal government announced that school meals would be free during the peak of COVID, but through it all, more than 500,000 meals were provided to students over the first two years of the pandemic.
Increased demand for school meals, as well as supply chain issues, created shortages and other logistical challenges in acquiring food, plates, and plasticware. Food Services worked with local pizza vendors to get additional food, created plates from takeout containers, and found alternative sources for plasticware so students could still eat. Their efforts did not go unnoticed. Westerville City Schools was one of only seven districts in central Ohio and the only one in Franklin County to be honored with the Children’s Hunger Alliance Child Nutrition Award in recognition of their work during the height of the pandemic.
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