District Meets Demand with School Lunch Repack Pilot Program
West Fargo, ND – (April 7, 2021) – From March 8 – March 31, West Fargo Public Schools repacked leftover meals from the district’s Food Service Department and distributed them to students through the Liberty Middle School food pantry program. More than 86% of the repacked servings were claimed by students in the one-month pilot program.
During the month, remaining menu items were packaged in microwave-safe containers donated by Power Plate Meals. The portioned meals were cooled, labelled, and frozen before their final delivery to the Liberty Middle School food pantry. A total of 134 servings were repackaged and 116 were claimed by the last day of the pilot program. The school’s food pantry will continue to disperse the remaining 18 frozen, repacked meals through the end of the year, or until they are all claimed.
As two of the pilot’s community partners, the Great Plains Food Bank and United Way of Cass-Clay collected data from the three participating school districts (West Fargo, Fargo, and Moorhead) over the course of the four weeks and is now evaluating it to determine the pilot’s reach and impact on the entire community.
The pilot was made possible in part by financial support from United Way of Cass-Clay and the support from Great Plains Food Bank, Power Plate Meals, Fargo Cass Public Health, Clay County Public Health, and the Cass-Clay Hunger Coalition.
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