School food program exceeds goals

    Murphy – Cherokee County Schools did too good of a job making sure every child was fed while campuses were closed for the coronavirus pandemic.
    While providing the Cherokee County Board of Education with final budget adjustments and amendments for the fiscal year which ended on June 30, chief financial officer Stephanie Hass informed the board that the $157,919 it received for school nutrition and transportation to continue feeding kids could not be used for their spring program. The state Office of State Budget & Management informed her that if a district’s program was a profitable enterprise, the funds cannot be used for it.
    For the meal program, the district gets reimbursed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the number of meals served. After serving more than 300,000 meals total over the period – or 4,000 per day – the district ended up bringing in more money than it was spending on the meals. As a result, the funding it received from the state could not be used for the program.
    “That’s very frustrating,” Superintendent of Schools Jeana Conley said.
    Gov. Roy Cooper directed districts to continue feeding children while schools were closed under his executive orders.
    “I feel our program far exceeded those directives,” Hass said.
    While other school districts in the state set up sites for families to pick up food, Cherokee County delivered meals along bus routes. Although the district could not use the funds for the 2019-20 fiscal year, there is hope that it can be used in 2020-21, Hass said.
    After the board approved all final budget adjustments and amendments for the 2019-20 fiscal year, Conley commended Hass for being in the “black” in every
category.
    “Thank you for your hard work,” Conley said.