The Relentless School Nurse: Nutritious Meals for Students – “Gilford Got Lunch” Initiative

Meg Jenkins has been the school nurse at Gilford New Hampshire High School since 1994. She is a leader in her school community and nationally as the NASN Director from New Hampshire. I invited Meg to share her extra special project called “Gilford Got Lunch,” after I learned about this important program to support students and families who are experiencing food insecurities. Summers and school holiday weeks are especially challenging for families who rely on the free and reduced school lunch programs to supplement nutritious meals for their children. Meg is the chair of this program that is on track to provide more than 9,000 meals this summer alone! They have been going strong since 2013.

Learn more about Gildford Got Lunch and the work of Meg and the legion of volunteers who make this program successful!

Please share programs that you are involved with in your school communities. Send your stories to relentlessschoolnurse@gmail.com and become a guest blogger! It’s easy, email me your stories (500 words or less is perfect), pics, and a brief bio and I will do the rest! I am always looking for stories to share from school nurses across the country.

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I am privileged to chair a supplemental food program in my town. Gilford Got Lunch is a lunch program that started in 2013. The board was formed by community members who organized and developed a core group of volunteers. We modeled our program on a neighboring city’s program, Got Lunch Laconia. In every community across the country, some families have food insecurity and my town is no different. While considered a “white collar” town, we still have many students who qualify for Free/Reduced lunch (F/R). The program’s goal is to help support families over the summer months when students, who typically have access to F/R meals, do not.

We started under The Gilford Community Church, utilizing their 501(c)3 number. This allows us to be registered with the state as a non-profit. We are a need-based/income-blind organization. Volunteers order in bulk from the New Hampshire Food Bank, and we also purchase fruit, bread, and other items from a smaller local market, Vista Foods, which also accepts purchased vouchers that families can use to buy dairy products. 

Once food purchasing is done, on Monday mornings volunteers package our food bags. We add locally grown produce, fruit, bread, and dairy vouchers. We typically rotate a menu with dry goods i.e. peanut butter and jelly, tuna fish and mayonnaise, pasta, and sauces. We strive to provide balanced food choices with healthy nutrition in mind.

All members are volunteers and include a webmaster, accountant, volunteer recruiter and coordinator, a driver coordinator, route planner and coordinator, food packers, delivery drivers, and food pickup. 

Packers fill the bags in the staging area and deliver them to the driver area. The driver coordinator gives the volunteer drivers their list of homes and the food is dropped off on Monday mornings. The route drivers come back and return whatever plastic grocery bags (donated by the Bank of New Hampshire and Shaws) have been returned by the families.

We have gone through several iterations of our program, having started in the church hall with tables for packing and many volunteers helping to pack. But like so many programs we had to pivot during COVID. We were able to adapt and make changes to sustain our mission. During COVID we provided gift cards to our local Hannafords, another of our partners.

We now have a smaller volunteer group due to the logistics of packing in a smaller room.  Before COVID, we did do weekend bags that were available in the school health offices on Fridays. That also required packing bags and delivering them to schools. The Gilford School District nurses brought the food to the students in our three school buildings. That became a logistical issue during COVID and has since been discontinued. In its place, we support families on an as-needed basis and offer grocery store gift cards during school vacation weeks.

District school nurses are in a unique position to understand the food insecurity our families face and will often assist a parent or sometimes even an older student fill out the application. Gilford Got Lunch also stocks the health offices with supplemental food and snacks. Various student groups have held fundraisers and made financial donations to our programs, supporting their fellow students. We can purchase discounted grocery gift cards in volume from the company’s corporate headquarters. The cards do not pay for alcohol or tobacco purchases. 

Gilford Got Lunch is supported by a larger local charitable organization the Greater Lakes Region Children’s Auction and we supplement our supplies with food drives and accept cash donations. Our most successful food and monetary donation drives are on election days when we set up a donation table and remind voters of about our program. The community response is always positive!

Overall the program has been a great success. This year we are supporting 28 families and 66 children. A week’s worth of healthy lunch groceries are delivered to families mid to late morning every Monday starting June 24 until August 26th.  The program also provides dairy vouchers redeemable at a local supermarket for families to choose milk, eggs, cheese, or yogurt. We supply 7 breakfasts and 7 lunches and are on track to provide 9000+ supplemental meals this summer alone! We are also able to help support the school food program by assisting with the repayment of unpaid food balances incurred by families. 

None of this could be done without our volunteers! Many of them have been with us from the very beginning!

Meg Jenkins has been the school nurse at Gilford High School since 1994. Her undergraduate degree in Nursing was from Salve Regina (College) University in 1983. She also earned her Masters degree in Health Care Administration in 2011 from New England College. Meg has served on the executive board of the New Hampshire School Nurses Association (NHSNA). She is the current NASN Director and has held previous positions in Hospitality, Education, and Secretary. Meg is an active community volunteer and has held many leadership positions in her NH town. Meg is the proud grandmom to two adorable granddaughters. Her son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughters live in Maryland.