Parks & Recreation launches 18–20 ‘Next Level’ internships; director asks council to shore up school-meal funding

Acting Parks and Recreation Director Melody Phillips told the Education, Youth and Families Committee on Feb. 12 that the department is launching a paid internship for older teens and young adults and has moved its academic-year meal service to a local vendor.

The new “Next Level” internship is a seven-week, paid placement for people ages 18 to 20. Phillips said participants will be placed with employers including ChristianaCare and other local sites and will be paid $16.25 an hour; the department’s traditional summer workforce track pays $15 an hour. Phillips said registration for Next Level was open Jan. 17–Feb. 21, 2025, and that the program “begins 01/16/2025.” She said the Department of Labor provided the funding that sets the program goal at 25 interns and that, as of the briefing, 25 people had applied but only 12 met the 18–20 age range.

Why it matters: the internship creates a paid pathway into health-care and tech placements for older teens while the larger summer program continues to hire hundreds of younger workers. Phillips said the department typically hires “anywhere between 300 to 325 young people” for summer positions and that the Next Level track is intended to provide higher-skilled placements and pay.

Phillips also reported a vendor change for the department’s Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP). She said the Community Education Building (CEB) negotiated a contract to supply meals for the city’s after-school sites; that reinvests meal dollars locally but has a short-term contract timeline. “The contract is only going through for June 15 right now,” Phillips said, adding that the city may need to re-bid the summer-feeding contract under the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP). Phillips told council that the Department of Education does not require the city to put the CACFP contract out to bid, but SFSP procurement could put the CEB at risk of losing the summer meal contract. She said CEB’s prices are higher than other bidders but that surveys show the sites rate CEB’s food and packaging highly.

The scale Phillips described: about 27 feeding sites during the school year (up from roughly 22 in 2023) and “close to 55 sites” in summer. She said Parks and Recreation is averaging “about 4,200 meals a week in after school programs.” Phillips warned that transportation capacity constrains summer expansion and asked council for budget help: she requested advocacy in the FY26 budget process to move funding into the general fund so the department can sustain the higher-cost local vendor and maintain meal service.

Committee members welcomed the local vendor decision and praised the quality of CEB’s meals. Councilwoman Yolanda McCoy said she had seen CEB’s work at local schools and called the collaboration “very important.” Council members asked operational questions about registration and capacity for the internship; Phillips repeated the department goal of 25 Next Level placements tied to Department of Labor funding and said staff would reach out to younger applicants for the traditional summer workforce interviews.

Phillips closed by reminding council that Parks and Recreation’s spring college tour is scheduled for April and will focus on historically Black colleges and universities. She listed institutions the trip will visit, including North Carolina A&T, Morehouse, Morris Brown, Georgia State, Fort Valley, Albany State, Clemson and Norfolk State University, and said the program takes 45–50 students in grades 10–12. Phillips asked council members to continue sponsoring students from their districts and said registration remained open.

The committee took no formal votes on the items. The presentation ended with council members offering support for the internship and the youth college tour.