The El Dorado School District has had in place a summer lunch program for four years now, ensuring that children residing in the district have access to breakfast and lunch each week day throughout the summer. This year’s program was extended due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Public schools in Arkansas were closed on March 16, with the expectation that they would reopen by the end of the month; their closure was extended through mid-April and eventually the remainder of the school year was called off.
Throughout that time, local school districts continued to provide daily meals to students who chose to receive them. Now that what would have made up the remainder of the 2019/2020 school year has ended, the El Dorado School District has shifted into its summer lunch program, which offers lunch and breakfast on Mondays and Wednesdays at several locations.
Gloria Johnson, a local grandmother and former aide at the district, has utilized the lunch program for her grandchildren and other friends’ and family members’ children since schools closed in March.
“At first I had eight (children she kept daily). I was doing the AMI packets,” she said, referring to the alternative method of instruction school materials ESD students worked on while school was still in session. “I had a schedule I followed and we did everything they did in school.”
Johnson said she wanted to help maintain a sense of normalcy for the children she saw and taught every day; she used her TV trays to make desks, decorated her hall with the letters of the alphabet and used a borrowed easel to display instructions to her children. They also took a regular lunch and recess break.
“They loved that because it was just like a classroom,” she said. “It was like they were in school.”
The ESD’s lunch program was a big help in maintaining that normalcy, she said, and it helped her as well, since the children got to eat lunches and breakfasts they liked and she didn’t have to cook french fries and chicken nuggets for them regularly.
“I don’t have to stop and prepare a lunch, because all I have to do is put them in a car, drive through, pick up the lunches, let them sit at the table. They pick out and eat what they want; when they finish, they pick up after themselves and then they go play,” she said. “They like (the breakfasts) because its a little cup of cereal. They like things like that, Lucky Charms, Cinnamon Toast Crunch. One day they had Cocoa Puffs — they liked that because it makes chocolate milk in the little thing it comes in; they don’t want it in a bowl, they want it in the little cup.”
She recalled one day when lunchtime came around and her children asked when they would go to Northwest Elementary, where they picked up their lunches and breakfasts; it was raining cats and dogs, she said, and she was just sure the lunch crew at Northwest wouldn’t be serving in that kind of weather.
“Small children don’t understand stuff like that, and they kept asking. So I packed them in the car, in the rain, and we went down there, and true enough, they had made themselves some rain gear out of garbage bags, and even with a smile — they came out to those vehicles with a smile on their faces, in the rain, bringing us lunches,” Johnson said. “I knew then I needed to do something. I just needed to show my appreciation.”
On Wednesday, she did exactly that, bringing certificates she’d made for the lunch crew — which consists of Charise Easter, Onie Wilson, LaShunda Green, Georgia O’Barr, Maria Olmos, Shannon Hicks and Jonathan Holland (who they call Coach, Johnson said) — thanking them for the work they’re doing.
“I am very proud of our food service staff and the work they have done to provide students in El Dorado a free breakfast and lunch during the summer,” said ESD Superintendent Jim Tucker. “It is nice to be able to provide an extra service to the city to make sure they get the food they need and to help relieve that burden off parents.”
According to the Arkansas Department of Education, 86.98% of students in the El Dorado School District were part of the free or reduced price school lunch program during the most recent school year. Feeding America, a nonprofit that runs food banks across the country, reported in 2018 that one in five Union County residents is food insecure, and one in four Union County children is food insecure; the organization also estimated that up to 31% of food insecure children in Union County would not be eligible for federal nutritional assistance, like SNAP benefits.
The certificates Johnson presented showed illustrations of people handing bagged lunches to families in their vehicles, as the lunch crew has done since March, and little milk cartons and fruits like what is served in the lunches. Johnson even got the children she keeps to sign each certificate as a thank you.
“Getting them to sign six certificates was a job, but I managed to get it done,” she said with a laugh.
She said she took inspiration from 1 Peter 2:9 in writing the certificates’ text, which were dated March 2020 through (blank), since the service is continuing indefinitely. She referred to the Northwest lunch crew as “Special Agents” in the “God Squad.”
“Sharing is caring; loving is giving,” the certificates read. “This certificate is awarded for your faithful and loyal service, putting your life on the line to make sure all children are fed during this time of COVID. Your kindness is greatly appreciated.”
The Northwest lunch crew is one of several working through the summer to provide lunch for El Dorado children. Other ESD employees working in the summer lunch program are: Becky Haynes, Rhonda Dade, Rhonda Brown, Billy Cable, Blanca Cervantes, Darlene Williams, Donna Spencer and Rachel Sharpe at El Dorado High School; Tanya Vines, Breezie Seal, Ashley Reddick, Mary Dickerson, LaTonya Hill and Melissa Parker at Washington Middle School; and Ben Murphy and Will Owens, who drive mobile lunch units to deliver to residential areas for students that can’t make it to the schools lunch is served at.
Johnson said one of the children she keeps had a particularly difficult time with the school closure earlier this year. Expecting to go back to school within two weeks, he was counting down the days until he’d be back in the classroom, she said; when the closure was extended, he was heartbroken until one of his teachers came to visit him to tell him that he’d still get to learn with his grandmother and that she missed him too.
“I’m not a rich person; I don’t have money for material things, but I do have a big heart, and that’s just something I felt I had to do,” Johnson said. “I have these children; they say bring these children and I do. … They needed to know how much I appreciate them.”
ESD Summer Food Program Pick-up Locations and Times
Northwest Elementary (1600 N. College Ave.), 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays
Washington Middles School (601 S. MLK Jr. Blvd.), 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays
Haygood Neal Apartments (1315 W. 1st St.), 11:30 a.m. Mondays and Wednesdays
St. John Missionary Baptist Church (1018 Wilson St.), 11:30 a.m. Mondays and Wednesdays
Wildwood Apartments, 11:30 a.m. Mondays and Wednesdays