School nutrition director: roughly $112,000 in meal charges, staffing shortfalls forced temporary production-site closure

Jesse Youngers, supervisor of food service for Great Falls Public Schools, presented the district’s annual school nutrition report at the Jan. 26 board meeting, citing participation, program reach and staffing pressures.

"We are sitting at about a $112,000 in meal charges," Youngers said, adding that the total is a moving target but that the district has hovered in the $110,000–$115,000 range in recent months. She told trustees roughly 1,100 students currently have accounts impacted by meal charges and that the district served about 331,000 lunches and 229,000 breakfasts through the end of December (77 serving days), which averages roughly 7,280 meals per day and projects to about 1.3 million meals by the end of the school year.

Youngers described several practices the district is using to address the problem: targeted mailed letters to families owing more than $250 co-signed by Superintendent Hoyer and Youngers, automated messaging through ParentSquare, Wednesday envelopes at elementary schools and a one-meal rule to ensure no student is denied food while balances are pursued. She also described a mix of reasons students are not being reached—some students bring lunch or leave campus at high school, some are paid students, and some simply do not participate—saying, "I think there is probably a little bit of everything." Trustees flagged the high-school level as the area of greatest opportunity to increase participation.

Youngers outlined program operations and staffing: the district runs 21 National School Lunch Program sites, 18 breakfast sites (14 of those are breakfast-in-the-classroom), and during the prior summer operated nine summer food service program sites that served about 17,000 meals. Staffing remains a challenge: Youngers said the department has about 101 total staff positions overall, with 63 food-service employees, four production managers and, at the time of the presentation, four cooks (the district hired one new cook the prior week). Because of vacancies the district temporarily closed the Paris production site and redistributed roughly 2,000 daily meals to other production kitchens; Youngers said Great Falls High picked up production tasks and the team has been able to manage distribution.

She also reported investments and equipment work completed over the summer (dishwasher/conveyor installation at East Middle School, replacement of ovens and freezer/cooler renovations) and said the district is pursuing a centralized cooler/warehouse to improve deliveries and reduce staff idle time waiting on suppliers. Youngers noted upcoming state-level changes to Summer EBT administration (moved to DPHHS) and said the district will coordinate with IT to supply the state the data it needs to optimize student access.

Trustee questions focused on which students are not participating and whether off-campus eating is a large factor at high schools; Youngers said high schools present the biggest opportunity to draw students back into school meals and described short service windows that can limit participation. The district plans continued outreach, hiring and adjustments to strengthen participation and reduce outstanding balances.

Youngers concluded by thanking staff and community partners and asking the board for continued support as the department recruits staff and implements operational improvements.