Grassroots Media is proud to announce a partnership with Greene County Schools and Chartwells Food Services to provide the Grassroots Lunch Fund to all Greene County Schools starting in August.
Over the last couple of years in Greene County, school breakfast and lunch has been essentially free due to COVID-19 relief funds. that being an exception now, the Grassroots Lunch Fund looks to bridge the gap for schools, families and Chartwells starting in the 2022-23 school year.
With government relief funding that provided meals for all students expiring at the start of the 2022-2023 school year, families are now required to fill out the Free and Reduced Lunch application that can be found on the Greene County Schools website under the Food Service department tab. Students whose family either does not qualify for free and reduced lunch, or does not fill out the application, their meals will be full price beginning this school year.
The Grassroots Lunch Fund hopes to bridge the gap by “charged” meals that accrue on a daily and weekly basis inside of Greene County Schools. The exact amount paid each month through the Grassroots Lunch Fund is yet to be determined, but the goal of the program is to cover as many “charged” meals as possible.
By launching this fund, the focus will be to alleviate stress for administration and parents to make sure their children are provided with a meal at school every day under any circumstances. School administration will have fewer letters to send out to families whose child had to “charge” a meal, and Chartwells will have fewer “charged” meals to collect on at the end of the year.
Both Greene County School and Chartwells serve our community in so many ways, and neither entity would allow a student to go without food. However, we hope the Grassroots Lunch Fund will have a positive impact by ensuring each student is provided with nourishment throughout the school day, without concern of how the meal will be paid.
We are very excited for the opportunity to serve in this capacity, and we look forward to sharing more information in the coming days regarding how individuals and businesses can be involved with the Grassroots Media platform.
