CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Three years ago CCISD started providing free meals after school to students who are food insecure.
What started off as a service for only a few schools has grown to include 44 campuses district-wide.
"We include a main dish, a vegetable, and a fruit," said the CCISD office's Coordinator of Food Services Deborah Meador. "And the milk is provided here at the schools, but those meals are shipped daily to the school and served each afternoon after school for the students that come for the Supper Program."
Through funding from the United States Department of Agriculture, Supper Program offers dinner to children from any area, ages 1-18.
Over 1,700 meals are served every day for the CCISD schools involved in Supper Program.
"I have to walk home," Veteran's Memorial High School freshman Wesley Hernandez said. "So I'll be hungry after school, and that's why i eat here. It's usually all the freshmen, all the seniors and all the groups, cause it's usually gone all the time."
The Supper Program meals are prepared daily at the district's central kitchen.
"It's providing (for) students who may go home and not get a meal in the afternoon, or those parents that have to work late and don't have the opportunity to make the meal right away," Meador said.
The district is currently looking at expanding the Supper Program to other schools.
