Summer meal service begins at Santa Fe schools

Jun. 3—For the littlest students in Kearny Elementary School's cafeteria Monday, lunch was almost too much to carry.

As the children made their way through the line, cafeteria workers loaded their trays with lunchtime mainstays: a slice of pizza, a scoop of corn and a serving of green salad.

By the time they reached the end of the line — and stacked a banana and carton of milk on top of an already full full tray — some kids found they needed an adult's assistance to transport their meal to a nearby cafeteria table. The adults were happy to oblige.

Monday marked the first day of summer meal service in schools across Santa Fe.

At Kearny Elementary, Principal Jonathan Davis said the summertime meals and programming combine to create "a source of stability" for families, who can continue to rely on the school as a source of child care and food — regardless of whether school is in session.

"They know exactly where their next meals are coming from, and it is breakfast and lunch every single day," Davis said. "That's a really wonderful thing."

The summer meals stem from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Summer Food Service Program, which is intended to address a seasonal gap in food security — when children would otherwise lose access to breakfast and lunch at school.

The state Early Childhood Education and Care Department administers the Summer Food Service Program in the state. This year, more than 600 sites — including 11 in Santa Fe — will participate in the Summer Food Service Program, the department announced Friday in a news release.

Meals are available through July to any child age one through 18. No registration or enrollment is required to participate.

"We invite every New Mexican family to take advantage of this incredible program," Early Childhood Education and Care Department Secretary Elizabeth Groginsky said in the news release, adding the effort is free for all New Mexicans regardless of income.

The school year ended more than a week ago, but Kearny Elementary was far from quiet Monday afternoon.

Inside the school's kitchen, cooks rushed to prepare dozens of breakfasts and lunches each day, cafeteria lead Norma Gutierrez said.

"It's hard. It's a lot of work because we have a lot of kids," she said.

There will, in fact, be a lot of kids at Kearny Elementary this summer. Throughout June, the school will host more than 100 students from kindergarten through sixth grade in a free summer camp.

The summertime programming, funded in large part by federal pandemic relief dollars, has emerged as a major priority for Santa Fe Public Schools in recent years.

Kearny Elementary's Learning Is Fun Camp will keep students' reading and math skills sharp through the first month of summer vacation, while featuring art projects, field trips and movement, said Kearny Summer Program Coordinator Tamara Quintana.

On Monday, students worked up an appetite swimming and ice skating at the Genoveva Chavez Community Center, said Sally Jaffa-Martinez, a school secretary who assists with after-school and summer programming.

The camp will keep kids busy and safe, alleviating the child care pinch that afflicts many families during the summer, Jaffa-Martinez added.

"We play a very important role in parents' lives because, if it wasn't for us, their kids wouldn't have any place to go," she said.

And because of the Summer Food Service Program, campers need not provide their own breakfast or lunch.

"We know that good nutrition is essential to learning," Davis said. "We're really making sure that our kids can not only have access to really high quality programming but that also their basic needs are met."