Old Town school staff put together daily meals for kids

OLD TOWN, Maine — Kim Barnes stood beneath the white plastic tent, next to the crates of milk cartons and paper bag lunches and pulled the mask off her face to breathe, letting it fall to one side. 

Not everyone wears a mask while working, but it makes Barnes feel better. The outdoor tent set up in front of Old Town High School is part of a larger meal program the school district started to feed kids while the school is shut down. 

The program is running on a no-contact agenda. When parents drive up to the big white tent, Barnes greets them from outside the car window, and asks how many kids they have to feed. 

A parent smiles as she picks up meals for her kids outside Old Town High School on Monday morning. (Nina Mahaleris | The Penobscot Times)

She and her coworker, Danielle Rackliff, bring out the bagged meals and milk cartons, leaving them on a plastic fold-away table before retreating back beneath the tent. They don’t ask for identification, or for parents to prove their child is a student. 

The only question they ask is if the child is a student at Old Town Elementary School, because some teachers left behind work packets to distribute. Other than that, it doesn’t matter to the lunch program. 

“You don’t ask questions,” Barnes started to say, as Rackliff jumped in to finish her sentence. “You just give,” she said, as the two of them organized boxes filled with meals to hand out Monday morning. 

The pandemic sweeping the globe has decimated the safe humdrum of routines and daily life, and the people who put on the Old Town meal program are no exception to the turmoil. 

The kitchen staff start their days early, around 7:30 a.m. and head home after noon, once they get all the meals out. For the first few days, they had leftovers — not anymore. Now, they count the number of meals they give out every day to better stock up for the next. 

“It’s kind of overwhelming,” said Ann Richard, manager of the Old Town High School food program that is making more than 1,000 meals for local kids on a daily basis.  “If I think of the numbers, I get overwhelmed.” 

Most of the kitchen staff have settled into a new routine bouncing between going to work and going home — with nothing in between besides the occasional trip to the grocery store, Barnes said. 

The changes feel like foreign territory to staff — some who are grandparents and can’t wait to hug their grandchildren again and not worry about transmitting the coronavirus. 

Richard scooped out heaps of mayonnaise and tuna fish into a blender as staff put together sandwiches behind her. Yesterday was her granddaughter’s fifth birthday and she celebrated with her from a distance — to adhere to recommended social distancing guidelines. 

Her face quickly shifted from commanding officer of the kitchen to a grandmother missing her three grandchildren. She left gifts and balloons on the front steps of the house and watched as 5-year-old Charlotte played in the yard. 

RSU 34 Ed. Tech Kelly Paradis organizes meals for local kids on Monday morning. (Nina Mahaleris | The Penobscot Times)

Encouraged by the thought of soon being reunited with her grandchildren, Richard recounted a post someone sent her on Facebook, saying that parents would eagerly hand kids over to their grandparents for a month when the pandemic ends. 

“I would gladly take mine for a month when this is over,” a staff member said as she made sandwiches. 

But at work, staff get to stay busy and focus on something other than physical distancing rules and missing family time. Everyone is complaining about being at home. At least we get to be here and be busy, Richard said. 

“It’s nice to be part of,” said Stephanie Salley, the RSU 34 food services director who oversees the meal program. 

The program is undoubtedly a community effort. Old Town custodians and educational technicians who have found themselves with hours to fill have pitched in to help. Some teachers help out by delivering meals to bus stops around town where families can pick them up, if they can’t get to the school. 

It’s an all hands on deck situation as staff try to tackle a new challenge of  preparing a week’s worth of meals for kids in the community, which will include seven breakfast and seven lunch meals, along with a gallon of milk. 

The meals aren’t exclusive to RSU 34 students, either, Salley explained. Anyone under 18 years old who asks for a meal can get one.

A parent smiles to kitchen staff as she picks up meals for her kids outside of Old Town High School on Monday morning. (Nina Mahaleris | The Penobscot Times)

The community effort is felt outside of Old Town, too, as people stepped up to help deliver food to families who can’t pick up from the high school. State Rep. Gary Drinkwater delivered meals to kids in Milford that needed food until their school’s own meal program got started.  

A week ago, he made 11 deliveries. By the following Monday, that had jumped to 15. Still, Drinkwater downplayed his part and returned the focus to the people working to provide food to the kids who need it the most. 

“I’m just volunteering to deliver them … [the food service staff are] the real workhorses in this whole thing.”