North Penn has served more than 1 million free meals during pandemic

The North Penn School District (NPSD) is proud to announce that its School Nutrition Services (SNS) Department recently served its 1 millionth free meal to students during the COVID-19 pandemic. In March of 2020 when statewide shutdowns were mandated for schools in Pennsylvania, NPSD wasted no time in developing a strategy and solution to ensure that its students in need would have access to nutritious meals. Led by coordinator Melissa Froehlich under the federally funded USDA Summer Food Service Program. North Penn’s SNS Department worked round the clock to put together grab-and-go breakfast and lunch meals to be distributed to students at select locations throughout the district. With each new mandate and guideline put in place, SNS employees quickly adapted, thinking outside of the box and going above and beyond to keep students fed.

Even as NPSD reopened its doors for hybrid learning in November, North Penn continued its free curbside meal pick-up program for students learning both in school and at home. Froehlich also secured a grant for $85,000 from Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign to be used to purchase a refrigerated box truck. The truck will assist North Penn’s SNS department in transporting meals across the district to curbside pick-up sites. It will also allow the district to deliver to more locations within the North Penn community to families who are unable to visit distribution sites. This mobility will help NPSD close the gap to food-insecure families who do not have a means of transportation to curbside locations.

On Tuesday, January 26, 2021, North Penn reached a milestone in its effort to keep all students nourished during the COVID-19 pandemic. The total number of free meals distributed by the SNS Department since last March officially climbed over 1 million.

“I am incredibly proud of my staff for everything they have done this year. They have been on the frontlines since the shutdown began, ensuring that every child in our community continues to receive the nutrition they need,” said Melissa Froehlich. “The millionth meal not only represents our hard work and dedication, but also the trust our community has in us. We love what we do and the opportunity we have to make a difference. We will continue to do everything we can to feed our North Penn community.”