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RESERVE — The St. John the Baptist Parish Public School District has been awarded a pair of grants totaling $134,000 that will help it to continue to provide quality, accessible meals to its scholars.

The first, $125,000 received from No Kid Hungry Louisiana, is specifically designed to enable school districts to maximize child nutrition programs and other emergency food programs to ensure children and families have access to healthy meals at school and at home as the coronavirus pandemic continues.

“This award will allow us to continue to provide nutritious meals for our scholars with easier access to those quality meals,” Director of Child Nutrition Terry Charles said.

School districts play an essential role in ensuring Louisiana students receive nutritious meals to learn, grow and reach their full potential. This year, however, districts across the country have also faced significant challenges as they’ve worked to maintain, expand and adapt meal programs in response to the constantly changing COVID-19 environment.

The flexible No Kid Hungry grant will allow the St. John the Baptist Parish Public School District to continue to adapt to these changing needs of its scholars and families. The grant may be used for items such as new meal service supplies and equipment including PPE and cleaning supplies, retrofitting existing equipment in order to implement new models for serving meals and snacks, ensuring maximum participation and access during emergency school closures, the cost of additional staff to implement increased services and transportation expenses.

In addition to the award from No Kid Hungry Louisiana, the district also received a $9,000 grant as part of the 2020 National School Lunch Program (NSLP) Equipment Assistance Grants for School Food Authorities (SFAs). The grant will be used for equipment at Emily C. Watkins Elementary School.