Wallace SD secures funding for meals program

OSBURN –– For most students, the weekend is a time of joy. Days off school, the possibility of an adventure-filled Saturday, or maybe the ability to grab a few extra hours of sleep. But for some students, the weekend means more questions than answers. 

Questions like, what am I going to eat for the next two days?  

Fortunately, students in the Wallace School District don’t have that worry thanks to the Bites to Go program.  

The program was almost taken away from the district due to funding concerns, but with a valiant effort from a school board trustee and the generosity of several local community members and businesses like Dave Smith Motors, the program will endure.  

Bites to Go provides financially challenged students with shelf-stable meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for two days, that they take home for the weekend. 

While the program’s benefits are easy to recognize, funding for the Bites to Go was dangerously close to running out before Wallace School District Trustee Amy Lynn stepped in.  

“This program has been funded by community organizations and private patrons in the past,” Lynn explained. “For the past few years, the district has had to cover some of the cost of the program.”  

In October, time had run out and the district was going to have to shut down the program at the semester. However, Lynn requested permission to continue the hunt for donations and other means to fund the program.  

Each week, between 20 and 40 students in the Wallace School District take advantage of the Bites to Go program. That number falls in line with recent statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau that says 19% of kids in Shoshone County live below the poverty line, a number that is 8% higher than the state average and 6.5% higher than the national average. 

According to Lynn, the program costs roughly $11,000 annually to fund and has secured enough funding to make it through 2026.   

Even with that two-year cushion, Lynn and the Wallace School District are looking for anyone who would like to partner with the district for the life of the program, to ensure that none of the kids in the Wallace School District ever worry about food when they’re away from school.  

For more information, or to partner with the Wallace School District, contact them at (208) 753-4515.