School year ends, feeding program shuts down temporarily on Thursday

A school year like no other ends for students of Lenoir County Public Schools on Thursday as the district begins a period of transition to planned summer learning programs and the district’s summer feeding program.

Remote learning activities that have kept LCPS students engaged in school work since March 16, when the state’s public schools closed in response to the coronavirus pandemic, will be offered through Thursday, when the 2019-2020 academic year officially ends for students under the current school calendar.

Associate Superintendent Frances Herring, who leads the district’s curriculum and instruction team, expressed pride in what the district and LCPS families have accomplished since learning shifted from the classroom to the internet. Data compiled by the district indicate that more than 86 percent of students engaged in remote learning and that 64 percent of elementary students engaged regularly.

“Our parents and teachers have done the most amazing things these past two months,” Herring said. “It underscores for me how wonderful LCPS is and how fortunate we are to have such a caring and supportive community. We are getting through this together!”

Plans for summer learning camps for current elementary students are now being developed and details will be provided in the near future.

Also transitioning to summer programming will be the district’s feeding program. The last day for the emergency feeding program that began March 17 – and has since distributed about 200,000 hot lunches and next-day breakfasts – will be Thursday. Feeding sites will be closed until May 26, when the summer program begins.

Operation of the summer feeding program will be nearly identical to the emergency program.

No-cost grab-and-go meals will be available to Lenoir County youth 18 and under and all LCPS students regardless of age at five sites – Kinston, North Lenoir and South Lenoir high schools, Southeast Elementary School and E.B. Frink Middle School – and will be delivered by school bus to 20 stops throughout the county.

The five sites will be open from 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Monday through Friday for meal pick-up.

Buses will deliver meals on the same schedule used during the emergency feeding program.

Under relaxed USDA rules, parents and caretakers can pick up meals for their eligible students.

USDA rules also stipulate that daycares that are receiving federal funding to feed children attending their daycares are not permitted to receive meals through the district’s summer feeding program.