Our school facility is not equipped and our staff don't have capacity to offer a free meal program. We are the only school in the Bend La Pine School District that doesn't provide this. While we have a long waitlist after the school lottery period, many families who are offered a spot at our school decline due to the lack of a free meal program. Our ability to serve historically marginalize populations is limited by the lack of free meal program, and some of our students struggle to turn their learning brains on due to lack of nutritious food. Educators report some students have had a candy bar for breakfast, and some with chips for lunch.
We try to keep stocked, a Food Pantry or our food insecure, but parent donations and occasional grants don't always meet the need.
To launch a free meal program, we need to hire someone to conduct a facility assessment and create a strategic plan so we can then fundraise, secure state, federal and private grants, and launch and sustain a program. As we undestand it, not only do we have to have an appropriate facility, we have to have cash in hand to purchase initial supplies as the state and federal grant programs are reimbursement based, with many schools seeing a net loss for free meal programs. We would also need to plan for the unstableness of the federal grant programs.
We have not secured any funders as competition is high for operating support grants that typically fund strategic planning work. For instance, we applied to Cow Creek Umpqua Indian Foundation, but they wanted us to have a strategic plan and cost estimate before applying again.
We have received food pantry grants and gift cards from Deschutes County, TDS, Costco and Target totaling $1,000.
We are seeking $10,000 to hire one or two consultants to develop a facility assessment and plan, as well as a funding/staffing plan.
