Mercer County Schools rolling out Summer Food Program
PRINCETON, WV (WVNS) — Mercer County Schools is continuing their Summer Food Program for children in need over the summer months. This includes their mobile food truck which will be going around the county.
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Food is not always easy to get or readily available for many students during the summer, but Mercer County Schools is working to lessen the struggle for their students even when school is out.
Beginning on June 10th, the Mercer County Schools food truck will be dishing up hot meals for their students.
This is an effort from the school board to provide nutritious meals to their students year-round.
Krista Kessinger, Director of Child Nutrition for Mercer County schools, said they are not only working to make sure kids are fed, they are also working to make it something the students look forward to as they bring back some of their favorite meals.
“At the food truck we’re going to have cheeseburgers, hotdogs, pulled pork sandwiches, our pizza quesadilla that we cook off of our grill. We cook that fresh and put it right out there. We’ve also had that in our schools this year,” said Kessinger. “So, that was actually a menu item that we pulled from the truck and put it in our schools during the regular school year.”
Kessinger said they will also be providing next-day meals at each location for the kids to take home. The hope is that this will provide food to the kids even when the truck is at a different location.
She said they are not skimping on the nutrition either.
“Things like our tossed salads, we do carrots with dressings and celery. A lot of fresh vegetables and fresh fruit options,” said Kessinger. “That’s a really big thing for us during the school year and during the summer months as well because we want students to have those nutritional values all year long.”
Kessinger said they have divided the county in half in order to reach kids from all Mercer County Schools.
Children from schools in Athens and Lerona are encouraged to come visit the truck when it is set up at Mercer School in Princeton.
Students from schools in Bluewell and Montcalm should catch the truck while it is at Bluefield Primary School in Bluefield.
“We’re going to put a sign up for them out on our social media so we can be aware of who’s coming to which site,” said Kessigner. “So that’ll be popping up probably next week, so we can account for our students that are coming and make sure we have enough food on the truck.”
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Again, the program begins on June 10th at Mercer School in Princeton.
They’ll start serving food at 11 in the morning and continue until 12:30.
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