Beginning with the start of the school year Monday, the nutrition department of the Bulloch County Schools is offering a weekly meal service to all families whose children are enrolled in the school district’s virtual learning programs for prekindergarten through 12th grade.
Parents or guardians must complete an online meal service pre-order form by each Thursday to be able to pick up meal boxes for the five-day school week the following Monday. The form is available through the district website, www.bulloch.k12.ga.us, and on each school’s website and social media. It was also being emailed to all virtual program parents and students, said Hayley Greene, Bulloch County Schools public relations director.
She suggests that parents or students keep the link to the form so that they can use it each week.
Menus for the first two weeks can be found on the school system website. Breakfasts feature things such as mini-pancakes, breakfast buns or a Nutrigrain bar with fruit and milk. For the first two weeks, lunch entrees are various sandwiches, accompanied by fruit and vegetable items and milk.
After the first two weeks, the meals will mirror those served to students attending traditional school, Greene said.
Everything in each box of five meals will be frozen, with the exception of the fruit and milk, and will come with instructions for thawing and heating, stated Bulloch County Schools Nutrition Director Megan Blanchard.
As in the meal programs for students attending school face-to-face, breakfasts will be free to all students, but lunches are either full-price, reduced or free, depending on family resources.
The full price of a week’s box of lunches will be $11.25 for prekindergarten through fifth -grade students and $12.50 for sixth- through 12th-grade students.
Reduced-price lunches will cost just $2 per week, and of course, free lunches will be no-cost to those who qualify.
The school district uses the MySchoolBucks website and mobile app for families to manage their meal payment accounts and make payments online. But they can also pay by cash or check at curbside when they pick up the meals. The two pickup times each Monday will be 9-10 a.m. and 4:30-5:30 p.m.
The pickup locations are the school district’s nine elementary schools. Middle and high school students’ meals are also to be picked up at the elementary school zoned for the student’s home.
If a student attended school in the Bulloch County system last school year and qualified for free or reduced lunch, he or she will still qualify to receive free or reduced-cost meals through Sept. 29. Information and a form for applying or re-applying can also be found through www.bulloch.k12.ga.us.