come back you know a lot of kids out for
summer break and you know you take for
granted that they will have three square
meals access the snacks but there a lot
of kids out there who do not have that
option in fact eight to ten thousand
will need some help when it comes to
food so joining me now we have will
rattly with Chartwells to talk about a
new program I mean this is pretty cool
we know there are a lot of places kids
can go to get like a bad lunch but this
is actually providing a hot meal for
children who are accustomed to getting
it at school but now that it's
summertime it's just not an option
yes ma'am every single day a hot lunch a
hot breakfast Duval County Public
Schools the Chartwells is very excited
to be part of that food service program
you know during the summer kids are
really jumping into that food fun and
Friends but parents you know sometimes
those budgets get stressed a little thin
I mean it's a lot you know you're trying
to send the kids to summer camp
potentially make sure they have some
somewhere to go and if food is an issue
during the school year it's definitely
an issue in the summer so we're talking
hot meals so you kind of brought us some
examples about what the kids will have
access to the sausage eggs yep cage-free
eggs we're also gonna be making a
parfait with our GBH free yogurt you
know a lot of these items here like the
granola the muffins the breakfast breads
we make these from scratch in our bakery
at our Nutrition Center and I think
what's neat about this is that even if
kids do have access to food in the
summer it's not always healthy food
correct you know for some kids they may
have to hit the dollar menu or something
like that but this is a well-rounded
with the fruits and the vegetables the
calcium that really kind of get that
rounded full meal oh yeah we have the
largest network of registered dietitians
and chefs in the industry so we really
took a step back and looked at the
program at what the community's needs
are and what the students wants are so
then we came up with this idea of a full
hot breakfast every single day yeah and
then as far as it being accessible how
widespread are you in Duval County and
all of our sites I think we're right now
we're sitting about 89 sites that are
open so any student that the age of 18
or under can go into any site need
breakfast and also throughout the whole
school year breakfast is free bus is
free right at every school what are the
hours that the kids have access to the
food well it varies from site to site so
they can actually go on the summer break
spot org website or dial 2-1-1 on their
smartphone and they find the locations
there and that
their closest location you'll be saying
yeah I give that a stir I got some stuff
in the oven well right now as far as the
food where it's prepared at Chartwell
right just like at the facility just
right what during the school year
correct then people can and then it's
brought into those different sites
correct we have a very large Nutrition
Service Center which state of the art
where we make a lot of the baked goods
we bring in a lot of our locally grown
produce that has grown just for us right
and then we ship it out to the schools
all of our pizza sauces papers scratch
all of our marinara
no nobody should be complaining that
food isn't delicious there are a lot of
options so this is just a yogurt parfait
got the yogurts you said and then we're
adding peaches and then the granola
which you make right correct
okay so many options so give the website
again that people can go to to find the
closest facility I mean there's no
excuse no you know skip a dollar menu
and come and get a full fledge delicious
hot breakfast I think if the parents
recognize what the program is and that
is free to the students they will
definitely push it originally seeing the
quality of this got some hashbrowns here
to go it's just so widespread of what
they have to choose from and if they
don't want the hot breakfast we always
have your fallback deny cereal right and
the healthy step to thank you all that's
healthy thank you so much thank you
make sure you all take advantage of this
all right well let's dig in I know let's
do it I forgot my lunch today I'm good
today Jim you got a nice plate right
here all right at ten minutes before
nine o'clock other counties across our
area are also hosting summer meal
programs for kids there's a here's a
look at some of the location in st.
John's clay and Nassau County's as you
can see there are several options where
your child can go to get a free
breakfast or and lunch in our
surrounding counties we also have a full
list on our website including the Duval
counties and there are many of them