By Brian Gilliland

LEWES — Stacy Smith, supervisor of child nutrition services for the Cape Henlopen School District, has authored her own, more succinct job description than what might appear in the employee handbook.

“My job is to feed Cape Henlopen kids at all costs,” she said.
And that focus has now shifted, as the district’s children entered summer break early last week.

In May, Cape schools served more than 84,400 lunches and more than 30,400 breakfasts to students.

And, while the routine of those two meals and snacks fades until September, Ms. Smith’s summer programs have launched.

“After schools let out, we (offer) one meal per day, probably around lunchtime, at Lewes Elementary, our Sussex Consortium and Cape Henlopen High School, from Monday through Thursday,” she explained.

Those are the typical school lunches provided during the academic year.

Then, on weekends, Ms. Smith said the district partners with the Food Bank of Delaware’s Backpack Program to provide shelf-stable items intended to last a few days.

But there are challenges with that, like grocery inflation.

“We are seeing bump-ups of $20-$40 on cases of food, which is sometimes startling. We’re conducting more evaluations of food items since returning from the chaos that was COVID-19,” Ms. Smith said. “We were hoping it would settle, but we’ve been looking for alternatives.”

Her budget is set for the year, like other forms of fixed income — she gets about $175,000 every month to feed the area’s children. However, as everyone has noticed, grocery prices keep rising, but budgets stay the same.

Perhaps that’s more evident for the 2024-25 year, as operational expense increases that might have helped alleviate these issues were twice rejected by area voters recently.

“The best example I can give recently is with cereal. There are lots of options for cereal, but not all of them are the kids’ favorites,” she said.
The district also must contend with meal requirements, regardless of cost.

“(The district) follows MyPlate guidelines and the National School Lunch meal pattern requirements. We are required to stay in a given calorie, sugar, salt range, and we must offer certain food components weekly, such as red vegetables, dark-green vegetables, starches, beans, whole grains, etc.,” she noted.

To subsidize these costs, there are prices associated with school lunch offerings. The district charges $1.25 for breakfast and lunch at elementary schools, and $1.50 for middle and high schools. If an adult is on-site and wants to have lunch with his or her student, they are charged $4.75.

But that’s not enough to make ends meet.

“One of our challenges is getting people to apply for free and reduced meals. We have a web-based, completely anonymous form. When the students go through the line, they enter their number like everyone else, and no one knows anything,” she said.

And that’s important because every Cape child is eligible for this program, and the schools are reimbursed for these meals at a higher rate than the base cost.

“Everyone can apply. We want everyone to apply because we can avoid lots of debt and use the higher reimbursements to get more produce, more fruits and vegetables,” she said.

According to Ms. Smith, the district has 6,802 students, but fewer than 20%, or 1,108 children, have applied for the cheaper meals. This has left the district and families with more than $55,000 in school lunch debt.
In addition, she said she has been monitoring House Substitute 2 for House Bill 125, which was approved by the state Senate last week and is pending in the House of Representatives. If it becomes law, the measure would provide free in-school breakfasts and lunches to students eligible for federal reduced-price meal programs.

To apply for Cape’s discounted meals, visit capehenlopenschoolmenus.com. The application period for 2024-25 begins July 1.