Accomack County to deliver home meal boxes again this summer through Food for Good partnership

Accomack County Public Schools will again ship home-delivered summer meal boxes to households with children 18 and younger under a partnership with Food for Good and PepsiCo, the nutrition presenter told the school board at its April 15 meeting.

The program is intended to reach families for whom transportation and work schedules make on-site summer meal pickup impractical. "When schools close for summer, millions of children lose access to their daily school meal program," the presenter said while describing the program and partners. He told the board the district moved from a poor turnout for school-site pick-up toward a direct-delivery model and reported substantially higher reach after the change.

Under the division's plan, each shipment will contain 10 days' worth of breakfasts and lunches — a total of 20 meals per shipment — and the division will schedule multiple shipments to cover the full length of summer break. Households must return a permission slip with an Accomack County address and contact phone number by April 25 to receive deliveries; permission forms are translated into Spanish and Haitian Creole and are available at schools and other local sites. The district said any child age 18 or younger who lives at the delivery address is eligible.

School officials credited Food for Good and PepsiCo with helping design an ecommerce ordering and distribution system and named local partners including No Kid Hungry Virginia, Baylor University and UPS, which the division said handled delivery. The presenter said the district used parent surveys and packaging improvements after early runs; the district adjusted packing and added shrink-wrap and a nutrition/menu insert for families.

The board heard participation data the presenter attributed to the change in approach: before home delivery in summer 2022 the division served about 12,185 summer meals; in the district's first home-delivery summer it shipped 8,193 boxes to 2,138 households; in 2024 it shipped 12,553 boxes to 2,157 households. The presenter said the program accounted for roughly 165,000 meals in an earlier year and increased to about 225,000 meals the following summer. He also reported the nutrition program recorded program-level profits the department used to sustain the work — roughly $22,940.94 in 2023 and about $61,509.70 in 2024, according to his presentation.

The presenter said Food for Good reduced the per-box price for the division this year by $1 and that the USDA reimbursement structure allows a higher per-box reimbursement (the presenter said $3 per box in the current arrangement). He said the division had also received small grants from No Kid Hungry Virginia for implementation costs.

Board members responding in the meeting thanked the presenter and urged outreach to maximize sign-ups; one said the program should be publicized widely on the Shore. The presenter said boxes include menus that show how items combine to meet USDA meal-pattern components, and added that the program passed USDA summer meal audits last year.

The presentation concluded with a request for ongoing district support to continue the delivery model and to keep permission forms available at school and community sites. The school nutrition presenter said he would provide printed copies of a national magazine article that featured the district's program to board members when available.

Ending: The division will relaunch the program this summer using the same home-delivery model; families must return the permission slip by April 25 to enroll.