By: Maya Ginyard
Introduction: This interview took place between myself and Ms. Emma Wilson James, the
Director of School Nutrition for Macon County Public School System. We discussed the details
of how her department navigated and adjusted to the challenges that came with the COVID-19
pandemic.
Maya Ginyard: “What was the response from your staff when you heard about COVID-19?”
Ms. James: “Well the staff was concerned about feeding the children. They were concerned
about how we were going to feed the children and of course their health as well and their
protection and the students’ protection. We were being told that it was effecting the kids so their
thing was safety for themselves, the children, and how they were going to go about preparing
the meals and taking care of the kids.”
Maya Ginyard: “How many students require nutrition assistance from Macon County schools?”
Ms. James: “Our total enrollment at the time… because we are a CEP school, community
eligibility program which is a program we qualify for through the state department and USDA if
we have 60% or more of her students directly certified that they’re receiving assistance through
the state. So we have applied for that and we have been on that program for several years and
all of our kids are able to eat through that program. So at the time our enrollment was like 1900
kids. We had a little over 1900 kids in 2019 at the end of that school.”
Maya Ginyard: “When the school system went remote and started virtual learning, what
challenges did your department face in feeding students? And were you guys able to navigate
these challenges?”
Ms. James: “We shut down the buildings in March of 2020 and our main thing then was how
were we going to get the food to the kids. What were we going to do about feeding the children
and continuing to feed the children? So we met with the superintendent and meetings back and
forth with the staff and that was the main challenge, getting the food to the children because the
buildings were going to be shut down. So we came up with the bus delivery and we also moved
all the staff to one central kitchen, and we were going to prepare meals out of there. So we
started with the bus and got with our transportation department to start the bus deliveries and
the bus drivers came up with the number of students that were in their routes and we took care
of organizing the bus routes. So pulled together and all of my workers ended up in one
cafeteria, which is Booker T. Washington High School, which is our largest cafeteria.
We prepared the bagged meals there and sent them out on the buses to the children. But we had
some students that were car riders and didn’t ride the bus during the regular school so of course
they weren’t on the schedule. We had to make sure that we accommodate them so we did pick
up from the location that we prepared the food, they were able to come to the back and we
allowed them to pick up the food from there. So that was one of our main challenges, getting the
food out. Of course our participation dropped because we still didn’t get to all the children
because we had children whose parents were working and were told not to go in and out for
their safety. So we still missed some children but we were able to get this program called Meals
to you from Baynard University, out of Texas. We worked with them in partner shape with USDA
so they delivered the boxed meals every two weeks to the students’ homes and we had the food
bank. They had different locations where the parents could drive through and pick up boxed
meals to carry them through the weekend or holidays when we were closed.
Also, we ran into supply chain challenges where we were running into a lot of substitutions, shortages, vendor issues where they were no longer supplying the things we were getting. We then of course had
to change our menu to be able to accommodate individually packed items because we were
sending things out on the bus so we had to make sure they weren’t spilling or that kind of thing.”
Maya Ginyard: “That definitely makes sense because a lot of people and industries were
affected by supply chain issues and not getting the things that they needed during the
pandemic…so did you get any community assistance with feeding the students? Like Parents?
Or any other community service organizations?”
Ms. James : “Well like I said the food bank was local, they worked with us in making sure that
like during the christmas break they set up at certain schools and made sure that the kids had
extra food items during that time. That mostly was the main thing going on as far as
supplemental food for the students.” **
Maya Ginyard: “Okay Were there any policies on the state and federal level that limited your
ability to acquire food or distribute food to the students”
Ms. James: “No, on the state level we received many waivers. They cooperated with us to make
sure that we fed our children. They relieved us of the different paperwork. We were able to
change our food service agreement where some schools were doing free and reduced
applications but that didn’t matter any more. Everybody went to a new program where all
children 1-18 ate for no charge. They limited documentation of who was eating, we didn’t have
to keep up with the names, just the count. With delivery meals we could feed children ages 1-18
therefore you know kids ages 1-4 were not in school but it didn’t matter if they were in that
household, they were able to get a meal. So the state worked with us very well with us with that
and on the waivers on several different occasions so we were able to accommodate our
students.“
Maya Ginyard: “That’s great because otherwise kids that are in preschool or who haven’t started
school yet would slip through the cracks.“
Ms. James: “Yes but if they lived in that household that had students who were in our school
system then their siblings were able to get a meal.“
Maya Ginyard: “Once students returned, what challenges did you face in providing meals for
students in person?”
Ms. James: “Once they started back to school…we opened our doors back in April of 2021, they
had an option they could go to school or do virtual. We stopped the buses but still allowed
parents to come and pick up. We allowed students to come back to school but we wouldn’t allow
them to come through the lines in the cafeterias because we do self service so that was
something we had to put a halt on because of covid. They had to keep six feet apart and we
didn’t want them touching the same spoon handles to serve themselves. It did put a little bit
more demand on the workers because they had to be there to serve but when we first allowed
the students to come back, we still did bags. Some schools allowed the students to come in the
cafeteria but only a certain amount at a time. We were still experiencing substitutions and
shortages but we were always able to make up a meal with all the items that were required. We
were able to make sure they got what they needed for breakfast and lunch.”
Maya Ginyard: “What did the meals consist of when you all were feeding the children via buses?
Was it like sandwiches? Hot food?”
Ms. James: “We still made sure that they got all of the components that were required. So we
did do a lot of sandwiches but it wasn’t always cold cut sandwiches, we did hamburgers,
chicken patties, pizza, and we did use 4 oz cups to do salad, corn…we used foil wrap to do
hotdogs, french fries… We did a lot of fresh fruit: oranges, apples, pairs, plums, peaches, cup
fruits. So we made sure that they got all of the required components.“
** In reference to the question concerning community support received from local organizations,
Ms. James later wanted to add that her department received assistance from the Helpings
Hands Food ministry and Macon MEANS organization.