CPS food services goes extra mile for families in need

Members of the Canton Public Schools’ Food Service Department pack bags of breakfasts and lunches into the Bulldog van for delivery. (Image courtesy of Tim O’Connor/CCTV)

When the Canton Public Schools closed in March due to COVID-19, the situation left approximately 20 percent of the student population vulnerable. Those 665 students qualify for free or reduced meals for breakfast and lunch, which they normally get at school Monday through Friday throughout the academic year. The school system immediately wanted to find a way to continue to provide nutritious meals to those students. Martha Lawless, the food services director for the Canton Public Schools, and the district’s food service staff began planning where and how to prepare and deliver more than 2,000 meals a week.

“I always worked in food service in some capacity as a teenager and in college,” Lawless said. After marrying and having a daughter, she returned to food service as a part-time substitute in the Weymouth Public Schools and eventually took a permanent position. She spent 14 years working in Weymouth and has been with the Canton Public Schools for 15 years.

Lawless said she loves working in a school setting and is proud to work in a “great district” such as Canton. “There’s support from the administration and the School Committee,” she said. “It’s a really great staff. I’m here to support the staff and work in the direction the administration wants me to.”

The Canton Public Schools closed at the end of the day on Thursday, March 12. That weekend, Lawless spoke with Superintendent Dr. Jennifer Fischer-Mueller and School Business Administrator Barry Nectow about preparing breakfasts and lunches for students and making them available for pickup. “They count on these meals,” she said of the students and families.

She then called some of the staff members and began to plan for the first week of meals. She ordered food, called a dairy, and also ordered packaging for the meals, quickly learning that some of the most difficult items to find were large bags to hold several meals. Other school systems and food distribution organizations needed them as well.

During the first week of the school closure, 49 students picked up meals at CHS. The district has made phone calls, sent emails to families, and delivered meals to neighborhoods for students to pick up, which was the focus of a recent segment on Canton Community Television. The number of students picking up meals has increased each week.

Lawless said that food staff members work in teams of five, which allows the staff to work every fourth shift. Early on, staff members went to their own schools to get food supplies and take them to Canton High School, where all the meals are prepared.

“It’s the central pick-up point,” Lawless said. “It’s easy with the drive-through. It has the largest refrigerators and freezers and the largest workspace. The logistics of setting up and packing, you need a lot of space.”

Meals are prepared twice a week in order to limit contact between students, families, and staff members. On Mondays, the staff prepares and bags two breakfasts and two lunches; on Wednesdays they prepare three breakfasts and three lunches. Lawless said that the staff is following the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s nutrition standards when planning meals and trying to make things that students might have for breakfast and lunch during the school year. Breakfasts include pancakes, bagels, cereal or muffins, with fresh fruit. Lunches might be turkey sandwiches, pizza, grilled cheese sandwiches, chicken nuggets, or a chicken Caesar salad. Each meal comes with white milk or chocolate milk and sides.

Pickups at Canton High School take place between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays. On those same days, the staff loads up the Canton Bulldog van with meals and Home/School Interventionist Katie Doherty, District Nurse/Case Manager Terry Saunders, Home/School Interventionist Cathy DeMassi and CHS nurse Christine Trendell take turns driving to six neighborhood pick-up points.

“They know a lot of students,” Lawless said. “It’s a nice connection for kids. They come and take their bags. They’re even looking inside. It’s a nice reminder of school for them.”

The food service staff is just as thrilled to see the students. “(The students) are excited, they’re happy,” Lawless said. “That’s the most rewarding part, when we see them.”

Lawless said that in the past two months, she knows that parents may have lost their job or suffered other financial setbacks. As a result, they may qualify for the meals. “We’re there for families in need right now,” Lawless said.

Those families should contact her or simply show up at the high school. If a family has two children who qualify and also has a younger child, she encourages them to take a bag of meals for the younger child as well. She wants parents to know that no one will ask for their name or take a photo of them as a way to identify them.

Lawless is very proud of the food service staff. “They’re brave, kind, devoted, dedicated. They’re the best,” she said. “It’s a different way to work. They’re doing a great job.”

The food service staff members are Waraphon Conard, Ruth Jean-Philippe, Rajae El Moundi, Brandy King, Kimberly Shea, Paula Connaughton, Susan Oxman, Lareine Olsen, Donna Scott, Diane Newayno, Melissa Boerman, Peggy Foley, Barbara Theberge, Irene Annan, Judy Centola, Betty Young, Terry Mitton, Jeanne Sumption, Hwasook Lee, and Cindy Welch.

The lunch drop-off locations and arrival times for the Canton Bulldog van are: Pequit Street, halfway between Washington Street and Sherman Street at 11:15 a.m.; the parking lot at Canton Estate Apartments on Neponset Street at 11:30 a.m.; Waterfall Apartments on Waterfall Drive in front of the tennis courts at 11:45 a.m.; Arboretum/Woodfield Commons in front of the leasing office at 12:10 p.m.; Blue Hills Village Apartments on Randolph Street, in the circle by the pool at 12:30 p.m.; and Prynne Hills Apartments on Bay Drive at approximately 12:45 p.m. For more information about the food services program, call 781-821-5060 ext. 1246.

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