Some superheroes wear capes and others wear aprons. Among the many changes with schooling during the COVID-19 pandemic, the school foods programs in the Uintah Basin school districts have taken on the massive task of offering free lunches to all youth ages 18 and under. The response has been amazing with many grateful families taking to social media to thank the schools for their efforts. The Naples Elementary location in Uintah School District is just one of the stops providing lunch but their location, which also provides lunches to the Jensen Park, has been serving almost 1200 lunches a day. Parents form a line in their vehicles and wait for their turn to pull up, give the names of their children, receive the grab-n-go lunches through the vehicle window and then head out. It is no small task for the lunch service crews providing this service but Laura Ainge, Naples head cook, says she and her staff are happy to serve and do it with a smile. Ainge has worked in school foods since 2009 and this is the first situation she knows of like this. “It’s been an amazing response,” shares Ainge. “We’ve had good support from the district and good support from the public. We’ll keep serving until they tell us to stop and thankfully our only feedback so far has been really positive.” Ainge also says she’s grateful they are making the kids hot meals rather than sack lunches. “It’s a little harder,” she says, “but worth it.” Uintah School District Foods Department reported on Friday that they have prepared and served nearly 18,000 grab-n-go meals district wide since March 18th, not including Friday’s meals! So to all the amazing school foods staff helping fuel the bodies and minds of thousands of our youth as they take on this new adventure of learning at home, we say thank you for serving the Uintah Basin so well!
