Warren County summer nutrition team serves up winning free-meals program

Named to the 2019 No Kid Hungry Summer Hero Hall of Fame: Stacy Fox, Katie Humenik, & Carrie Lohr. Photo by Kim Riley

FRONT ROYAL — The three-member Warren County Public Schools (WCPS) summer nutrition team recently received national recognition for their efforts to keep local children fed through much of June and July.

Katherine “Katie” Humenik, Stacey Fox, and Carrie Lohr this month were named to the 2019 No Kid Hungry Summer Hero Hall of Fame, a national honor that recognizes and celebrates those who go above and beyond to find innovative ways to ensure children get the food and nutrition they need during the summer months.

“We were very honored to receive the recognition,” said Humenik, manager of the WCPS Free & Reduced Price Meal Program. “It was a big surprise!”

Among the 20 states recognized in this year’s Summer Hero Hall of Fame, Virginia had the most honorees, with a total of 13 individuals and organizations singled out by No Kid Hungry, a global campaign of the national anti-hunger organization Share Our Strength, which also works to end poverty.

“This roster of Hall of Fame inductees not only showcases the incredible commitment that exists throughout the Commonwealth to help feed children experiencing hunger, but also the deep wells of creativity and energy to make it all possible,” said Claire Mansfield, director of No Kid Hungry Virginia.

No Kid Hungry and its partners connect kids to the Summer Food Service Program, a federally funded, state-administered meal program that reimburses program operators who serve free, healthy meals and snacks to children and teens in low-income areas.

In Virginia, only about 15 percent of students who receive free or reduced-price school lunches during the regular school year also get free summer meals, according to No Kid Hungry.

In Warren County, Va., 42 percent of the students receive either free or reduced-cost meals during the school year, said WCPS Superintendent Greg Drescher.

“The need for food support doesn’t end when the summer break comes,” Drescher told Royal Examiner. “For a number of our families knowing that their children are going to get a meal during much of the summer has been a blessing.”

Humenik and her summer nutrition teammates, Fox and Lohr — who are the cafeteria manager at Skyline Middle School and Skyline High School and the cafeteria assistant manager at Skyline Middle School, respectively — made it their duties to spread around the nutritional blessings this summer.

“We met some really great people in the community who also care a lot about the kids, so it was a blessing to have that support and be around others who care like we do,” said Humenik.

As of July 1, all WCPS food service workers, including Fox and Lohr, became employees of Sodexo, the food service contractor for WCPS. Humenik remains a WCPS employee.

Sue Ann Fox, child nutrition services coordinator at Sodexo for WCPS, said the company years ago brought up the idea for WCPS to participate in the Summer Food Service Program. “And we continue to try to grow it in ways that are beneficial for Warren County,” she said on Wednesday.

“Sodexo has been a wonderful partner for close to 20 years. Sodexo headed up these efforts and figured out all of the logistics of serving lunches to multiple places in our community,” said Drescher. “While this is the second year they have done summer meals at different sites, they have been providing summer meals for a number of years at our E. Wilson Morrison Elementary School.”

In fact, Lohr this summer worked as the program supervisor at E. Wilson Morrison Elementary School.

“She kept things running smoothly at that site but has been a major help to the mobile sites making sure extra food was prepared if the van needed to replenish in the middle of service times,” Humenik said.

Fox, who served as the supervisor for the WCPS mobile meals this summer, drove the WCPS van delivering free bagged lunches around the county.

“She kept things moving at the sites, completed the necessary paperwork, and really established great relationships with so many of the families we served this year,” said Humenik, adding that the WCPS summer mobile meals sites increased to seven this summer from four last year, plus three building sites for a total of 10 sites.

“We served a little over 4,000 meals to kids this summer, which is an increase of over 1,000 compared to last summer,” said Humenik. “I would like to bring up how wonderful the community was in supporting us this summer and helping to spread the word about our program.”

The WCPS team served summer meals to all children up to age 18 at:
• E. Wilson Morrison Elementary — only site where adults also could pay for low-cost meals
• Ressie Jeffries Elementary
• Royal Arms Apartments
• Royal Hills Apartments
• Skyline Vista Apartments
• Blue Ridge Education Center — a closed site where meals were served only to the children enrolled in their program
• Front Royal Church of the Nazarene
• Brinklow Road/Hattie Street/James Street
• Skyline Middle School — a closed site and breakfast was served only to the children enrolled in their summer program
• TDT program at E. Wilson Morrison — a closed site providing lunches for the children enrolled in their program on Fridays

There’s a lot that goes into feeding children over the summer months that many people may not realize, Humenik said.

For example, in addition to the van-delivered meals and on-site lunches, the WCPS team collaborated with the Warren County Backpack Program to ensure donated non-perishable foods were distributed to summer meal program participants every Thursday.

And at the mobile sites, Humenik said the summer nutrition team also set up lawn chairs and put down blankets “to give it a community feel.”

“It is so worth it to see the kids during the summer, to be a friendly face for them, and to feed them,” she added. “We do it because we care about the kids in our community and we love what we do, so getting recognized was the icing on the cake!”

Some of those joining the WCPS team as Virginia inductees to 2019 No Kid Hungry Summer Hero Hall of Fame were employees with Fairfax County Public Schools; Fredericksburg City Public Schools; Loudoun County Public Schools; and Radford City Public Schools.