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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend June 15, 2005 Phoenix Elementary School student Irving Cortes, who will be in third grade next year, reaches for some healthy items offered at the cafeteria�s fruit and salad bar. Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli Schools offer summer eats Federal program ensures healthy food By ANITA BURKE Mail Tribune After working this spring to boost the healthfulness of school lunches, Sodexho School Services plans to continue serving nutritious meals all summer long. The food-service company offers free meals through the summer at nine schools in Medford, Talent and Phoenix as part of a federally funded program to make sure kids who rely on school lunches still get fed when classes let out. "We don’t want to see a need go unfulfilled," said Jeff Ashmun, Sodexho’s senior general manager who oversees services in the Medford and Phoenix-Talent school districts. He also didn’t want to see the progress made this spring when parents demanded healthier school lunches go by the wayside. "It just didn’t seem right to go back to burgers and pizza," Ashmun said. "We focused so hard on it during that process that when I got to the summer meals, I couldn’t take five steps back. That’s where we live now." Advertisement The summer food program will offer home-style food such as spaghetti, turkey with gravy, and enchiladas, with chicken nuggets, pizza and cheeseburgers showing up just occasionally. Wraps and salads introduced this spring will continue and a daily vegetarian option has been added, he said. "If we do a spaghetti sauce, we’ll do a spaghetti with meat sauce and we’ll do a spaghetti with marinara sauce," he said. All lunches include fruits and vegetables from a salad bar and milk. At breakfast, one menu item is available, complemented with a selection of cereal. "We want to make the program as attractive as possible so we get as much participation as possible," Ashmun said. Although the free meals are available to anyone 18 or younger, the number of nibblers drops dramatically — to roughly a quarter of the kids served during the school year, according to past reports. Last summer, the food program served 15,000 lunches and 7,000 breakfasts in Medford, Ashmun said. In Phoenix, the program served 4,300 lunches and 775 breakfasts. Jackson County School District No. 6 won’t serve lunches at Patrick Elementary School in Gold Hill as it has in past years, in part because kids didn’t show up to eat. Officials said it was hard to find people who wanted to work through the summer and the district lost money on the program. Last summer, ACCESS Inc. stopped providing meals at three small sites because federal reimbursement rates were too low. Ashmun said the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Summer Food Service Program, has tried to reduce paperwork and improve reimbursement. The federal program provides $1.53 for breakfast, $2.69 for lunch and 63 cents for snacks. Although 23 schools in Jackson County qualify as summer free-meal sites because more than 50 percent of their students are eligible for free or reduced-price meals, only 11 offer the summer meal programs. In addition to Sodexho’s programs in Medford and Phoenix-Talent, Eagle Point School District serves meals at two schools. Sodexho also prepares sack lunches for several small sites at Jackson County Housing Authority complexes. Eagle Point serves lunch to several hundred children, including summer school students and kids in city recreation and Boys and Girls Club programs, at sites in Eagle Point and White City, said food service manager Brad Knipscheer. Each meal includes an entree, fruit, vegetable and milk. Reach reporter Anita Burke at 776-4485, or e-mail [email protected] . Where kids can get food Free meals will be served to children ages 1 through 18 at food sites, dates and hours listed here. All sites will be closed July 4. Eagle Point School District Eagle Rock Elementary, 1280 Barton Road, Eagle Point. Lunch at noon, Monday through Thursday, June 20 through Aug. 12. Mountain View Elementary, 7837 Hale Way, White City. Lunch at noon, Monday through Thursday, June 20 through Aug. 12. Medford School District Jackson Elementary, 630 W. Jackson St., Medford. Breakfast from 8 to 8:30 a.m. and lunch from 11:30 a.m. to noon, Monday through Friday, June 20 through Aug. 18. Washington Elementary, 610 S. Peach St., Medford. Breakfast from 8 to 8:30 a.m. and lunch from 11:30 a.m. to noon, Monday through Friday, June 20 through Aug. 18. Roosevelt Elementary, 112 Lindley St., Medford. Lunch 11:30 a.m. to noon, Monday through Friday, June 20 through Aug. 18. Breakfast from 8 to 8:30 a.m., Monday through Friday, July 18 through Aug. 18. Howard Elementary, 286 Mace Road, Medford. Lunch from 11:30 a.m. to noon, Monday through Friday, June 20 through Aug. 18. Breakfast from 8 to 8:30 a.m., Monday through Friday, July 25 through Aug. 18. Jefferson Elementary, 333 Holmes Ave., Medford. Breakfast from 8 to 8:30 a.m. and lunch from 11:30 a.m. to noon, Monday through Thursday, July 18 through Aug. 11. Oak Grove Elementary, 2838 Jacksonville Highway, Medford. Breakfast from 8 to 8:30 a.m. and lunch from 11:30 a.m. to noon, Monday through Thursday, July 18 through Aug. 11. Wilson Elementary, 1400 Johnson St., Medford. Breakfast from 8 to 8:30 a.m. and lunch from 11:30 a.m. to noon, Monday through Thursday, July 18 through Aug. 11. Sack lunches will be available on a reservation basis at 11:30 a.m. from June 20 through Aug. 18 at Barnett Townhomes, 1852 E. Barnett Road, and Glenridge Terrace Apartments, 690 Black Oak Drive. Phoenix-Talent School District Talent Elementary, 307 Wagner Creek Road, Talent. Breakfast from 8 to 8:30 a.m. and lunch from 11:30 a.m. to noon, Monday through Friday, June 20 through Aug. 19. Phoenix Elementary, 215 N. Rose St., Phoenix. Lunch from 11:30 a.m. to noon, Tuesday through Thursday, June 28 through Aug. 18. Lunch from 11:30 a.m. to noon Monday through Friday, Aug. 22 through Sept. 2. Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. 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