Meal Services During COVID-19
Summer 2021 Meal Service
Summer Meals will be available for free to all kids ages 18 and younger at each of the following sites Monday through Friday beginning June 21st, 2021 and running through August 27th, 2021. There will be no meal service Monday, July 5th in observation of the Independence Day Holiday.
Breakfast & Lunch served together at the following school sites from 11:00am-1:00pm
Harvey Clarke Elementary
Joseph Gale Elementary
Cornelius Elementary
Echo Shaw Elementary
Tom McCall East Upper Elementary
Forest Grove High School
Breakfast & Lunch served together at the following park sites from 12:00pm-12:30pm
Talisman Park
Lincoln Park
Bard Park
Rose Grove Park
Harleman Park
Rogers Park
Sodexo, in cooperation with the Forest Grove School District, has put into place what we call The Six-Foot Kitchen. The Six-Foot Kitchen is our response to the COVID-19 safety needs, with extra precautions added onto our already high standards. For reference, the Oregon Ready Schools, Safe Learners is linked here and the section specific to Meal Service/Nutrition is included below.
Six-Foot Kitchen
The Six-Foot Kitchen is a Sodexo training program for Nutrition Services staff with both physical and behavioral changes. These changes incorporate CDC guidelines as well as best practices that we have developed from lessons learned at schools and businesses that have reopened across the country.
Kitchen staff are trained on updated practices for: personal hygiene, personal protective equipment (PPE), cleaning of food and non-food contact surfaces, workstation spacing, traffic flow, accepting deliveries, food storage, and food production and service.
If you were to look into our kitchens, you would see workers spread out at stations six feet apart and wearing masks. Each worker has their own set of gloves and other kitchen PPE. When they receive deliveries, there is a minimum of contact between delivery and kitchen personnel.
P-EBT Benefits
P-EBT provides food benefits to families whose children are missing the free or reduced-price meals usually provided at schools participating in the National School Lunch Program, impacted by the COVID public health emergency. Oregon P-EBT benefits will be sent in phases, starting in July.
Households do not need to apply for P-EBT. Benefits will be automatically issued for students who normally have access to federal free and reduced-price meals and are enrolled at a school in Oregon that offered the National School Lunch Program before COVID.
Oregon families are encouraged to use the DHS P-EBT support email, ebt.schoolmeals@dhsoha.state.or.us where they will see the following auto-reply:
We recommend you take these steps to make sure your family receives the food benefits you qualify for:
- Learn more about P-EBT and how families qualify on the Oregon P-EBT webpage here: https://www.oregon.gov/dhs/assistance/food-benefits/pages/p-ebt.aspx
- If you think your family qualifies, apply for free or reduced meals if you haven’t already. You can apply online through Oregon Department of Education at https://www.ode.state.or.us/apps/frlapp or contact your school for information. Please apply by June 15,2021.
- Make sure your children’s school has your most current mailing address on file because program notices and instructions will be sent to participants by mail.
Please call Nutrition Services at 503-359-8110 ext 4524 with any questions.