School board approves $30,030 appropriation to fund No Kid Hungry summer meals, pilots Amazon home delivery

Prince Edward County School Board on Tuesday approved a $30,030 request to help fund a No Kid Hungry summer feeding grant and an Amazon pilot that will ship boxed meals to participating households.

At the meeting Superintendent Doug Jones introduced the request and a staff presenter asked the board to send a letter to the board of supervisors seeking the additional appropriation. A motion to approve the appropriation was made by a board member and seconded; the motion passed.

Mr. Davis (school nutrition staff) described how the pilot will work: "part of this grant is actually gonna pay for the first 400 box meals that we will be getting," he said, and staff will label and palletize the boxes so "Amazon will come and pick them up" and ship them to families at no cost to the division. He said the boxes will cover a 10-day cycle of 10 breakfasts and 10 lunches and will extend the district's summer feeding reach in rural areas.

Board members asked logistics questions about timing and spending deadlines. A board member asked whether the funds must be spent by the end of the fiscal year; staff replied the grant will be used for the summer feeding program and described distribution and sign-up procedures using a Google form and QR code to collect household mailing addresses.

The board voted to approve sending the appropriation request to the supervisors and to accept the grant funding authorization. The item passed without recorded dissent.

Next steps: staff will forward the appropriation request to the Prince Edward County Board of Supervisors and coordinate label printing, palletizing and the Amazon pickup and shipment schedule.