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Over 4 millions meals to be served to CNMI students this school year
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Posted on Sep 02 2011
By Moneth Deposa
Reporter
Reporter
Over four million meals will be distributed to schoolchildren in school year 2011-2012, according to Public School System federal programs officer Tim Thornburgh yesterday.
The meals will cover 13,300 students in 20 public schools; enrollees in 32 private schools; and students enrolled at 10 Head Start centers on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota.
For breakfast delivery alone, PSS estimates to serve over a million meals during the entire course of the school year. It is also expected to serve 2.1 million lunches and 960,000 nutritious snacks.
Commonwealth public schools will start school year 2011-2012 on Tuesday, Sept. 6, at 8:30am.
Thornburgh said all these meals-breakfast, lunch, and snacks-will be funded by an annual grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s nutrition assistance service.
For fiscal year 2012, PSS was awarded $9,517,089 million in total NAP assistance for the meal program–an increase of about $500,000 over the $9 million awarded in fiscal year 2011.
Thornburgh said that PSS has noted an increase in the number of meals it provides to students every year. For the more than four million meals this school year, total expenditure is projected to reach $9.6 million, he added.
School meals are formulated following USDA guidelines for nutritional content and are designed by a PSS nutritionist in collaboration with food vendors.
Thornburgh assured that meal vendors and suppliers are fully prepared for the start of classes. He said PSS has about eight meal vendors for both public and private school students.
