Meals to Be Picked Up by Families on Wednesday
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VNR Info:
The following video clips may be used freely by the news media:
- Media with additional questions may contact JGPR by calling 617-993-0003 or emailing info@jgpr.net.
- Norwood Meals VO: click here. Video of the preparation and packaging process
- Norwood Meals SOT: click here. Interview sound with food service workers
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NORWOOD — General Manager Tony Mazzucco and Norwood Public Schools Superintendent David Thomson are pleased to share with the community a new food program, unique to Norwood, that is currently serving over 400 families and has school cafeteria workers cooking, preparing and serving weekly dinners to families throughout the months of May and June.
The program, run through the Norwood Public Schools, was an idea that started with the members of Norwood’s Incident Command Team. The program provides free grab-and-go dinner meals for Norwood families with students in the Norwood Public Schools or home-school, or Norwood families of other schools with children under 18 years of age.
“Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the members of the Incident Command Team wanted to take a unique approach to addressing food insecurity within the community,” said General Manager Mazzucco. “Unlike other programs that serve breakfast or lunch, this is a dinner program for the entire family. Not only did we want to provide food and resources for the children, but for their parents as well.”
On Tuesday, the cafeteria staff gathered in the Norwood High School kitchen to prepare over 400 meals to be picked up by families on Wednesday, May 20.
“It’s generally easy stuff that you throw in the oven all together,” said Elijah Norris, Food Service Director, Chartwells at Norwood Public Schools. “Sometimes if it’s a dish like chicken parm and pasta, you might want to take the chicken parm away from the pasta, heat up those two things separately, but we’ve assembled the meals where you can just put the entire thing in the oven, set a timer for 20 minutes, read a book, play with the kids a little bit and come back and then enjoy dinner.”
Families are encouraged to fill out a Google form to indicate their request for grab-and-go dinners. All meal requests should be submitted by 10 a.m. on Tuesdays through the months of May and June. The meals are available for pick up from any of the community’s elementary schools on Wednesdays.
All meals are prepared and packaged “family-style” and are distributed cold, with heating and cooling instructions provided. Meals contain 8-10 servings, potentially lasting more than one day for a family. Anyone with food allergies should contact food services at enorris@norwood.k12.ma.us or call 781-352-2363 to discuss other options.
The Norwood Public Schools cafeteria staff has been instrumental in implementing the program by organizing, packaging and distributing the meals each week.
“So, we had one week where we had fresh roasted turkeys and fresh roasted pork loin. We cooked it starting at 6 a.m. and we were here all day. It was quite the undertaking but we got it done, we got it done. It gets bigger every week and we’re here as long as there’s a need,” said Maureen Giammarco, Administrative Assistant, Office of Food Services Norwood Public Schools. “We would do anything for our town, we would do anything for our staff. All hands on deck, everyone who needs help is going to get it and we’re going to be right here next to them doing it. I’m proud of all our ladies for what they’re doing every single day.”
The Norwood Public Schools orders the food through its food vendors and approximately five cafeteria workers prepare the meals. An invoice is then sent to the town with a per cost meal that includes the labor and product and the initiative is being funded by donations received through the Norwood Fund.
The free program is currently operating in its sixth week and more families are signing up each week. Different meals are prepared for the families each week with usually at least two options to chose from.
“We are excited to be part of a program uniquely designed to cater to whole families, instead of just individual students,” said Superintendent Thomson. “Our cafeteria workers are dedicated to ensuring that families in need of meals receive one each Wednesday. We look forward to continuing to help our community during this time of need.”
This week, the town expects to serve more families with the choices of orange chicken with fried rice or vegetable stir-fry.
“You know a lot of families are experiencing financial hardships, you know out of work, some members aren’t able to collect unemployment yet if they’re self-employed, so we’re very proud to be able to offer this program and assemble the meals and put out the meals just to take one thing off the mind of our community, one less thing for them to worry about,” said Norris.
Click here to order meals through the program. All requests are kept confidential and are used for planning purposes only.
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