CANTON -- During the week of March 30, the St. Lawrence-Lewis BOCES Food Services program worked with local schools to prepare and distribute 81,900 breakfasts and lunches to children across St. Lawrence, Lewis, and Jefferson counties.

The BOCES Food Service program usually operates while school is in session to provide menu planning, cooperative purchasing, meeting dietary requirements, shared management, and reporting. However, the school closure during the COVID-19 Pandemic has shifted these responsibilities to include coordinating and preparing, packaging, and distributing meals to all children under the age of 18.

Since St. Lawrence County schools closed on March 16, Food Service Director Artie Frego and his staff have been working around the clock to develop plans and processes for food delivery.

Prior to the school closing, the BOCES worked in partnership with the Cornell Cooperative Extension of St. Lawrence County to provide a robust Farm to School program, bringing local produce into school cafeterias. During the closure, BOCES and CCE have continued to work together to provided locally grown produce in the meals that are being distributed in each district.

“During the school closure, the number one priority has been ensuring that children are fed. Artie and his team completely revamped their operations in weekend to devise processes and procedures to make that happen,” said BOCES District Superintendent Tom Burns. “The amount of coordination, planning, and boots on the ground efforts by Food Service workers and volunteers across the region has been an incredible feat.”

After the first week of meal distribution, the BOCES was no longer able to purchase paper bags to distribute the meals and has relied on the generous donations of bags from several local businesses. A full listing of benefactors is posted on the BOCES COVID-19 webpage at https://www.sllboces.org/apps/pages/COVID19.

A listing of available pick-up or drop offs for free meals is located on the SLL BOCES website at: https://www.sllboces.org/apps/pages/COVID19. Meals are free to any child under 18. Children do not need to be present at pick up, and families are encouraged to practice safe social distancing while picking up meals.

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