JC Schools adjusting food distribution stops

The Jefferson City School District's Mission Nutrition program will have minor bus stop and building location changes and will no longer offer dinner beginning Monday.

The food distribution program will continue until summer school ends June 30.

District leaders will evaluate whether to extend Mission Nutrition throughout the rest of the summer, JC Schools Communications Director Ryan Burns said.

Thorpe Gordon and West elementary schools will now be on the bus stop list for meal deliveries, instead of the building location list, because there has been a decrease in the number of families going to these sites, Burns said.

Families can still pick up meals at Thorpe Gordon and West elementary schools, but a bus will deliver the meals to those sites instead of the food services staff distributing them.

"Rather than staffing those schools with a team to make the meals and serve them there, it just makes a lot more sense where the bus will stop there for a 15-minute window and families can pick up meals at the school," Burns said.

There will also be a few more stops in Callaway County, based on feedback the district received from families, Burns said. The same number of buses will run on the same schedule.

The district is no longer offering dinner to students because the number of students receiving meals decreased. There were up to 1,300 students receiving meals every day, but the number has been less than 1,000 for about the past week and a half, dropping to 800-900 students for a few days, Burns said.

"As people are getting back to work and the economy is reopening, there's not as much of a need, is what we're assuming," she said. "When we looked at the numbers and we looked at staffing and everything, it just made more sense to do the breakfast and lunch."

The Boys & Girls Club of Jefferson City was providing about half of the dinner meals, but it has stopped providing dinner because its summer camp program will begin Monday, so the club is no longer able to use its kitchen and staff to prepare dinners.

For more information about Mission Nutrition and to view the bus stops and times, visit the JC Schools Mission Nutrition page at jcschools.us.