CRETE (SNR) – St. James School in Crete began providing take-out dinners for children in the Crete community ages 1-18 on weekday evenings.
On the first day, April 15, about 115 meals were provided.
The school cook and an assistant prepare simple, well-rounded meals and volunteers deliver to the vehicles – using proper social distancing – and record the numbers. The meals are available to all children in the community, not just members of the parish or students of the school.
“We know this is a difficult time for many, so we hope a warm meal can offer some peace to you and your family,” read an announcement on the school’s Facebook page.
“I knew that some of our school parents had been laid off from their jobs due to the COVID-19 restrictions,” explained principal Sister Mary Alma, “and that many more could easily be asked to stop working if ever the virus would invade the town’s factories. 
“I also knew that Crete Public School, God bless them, was offering free breakfast and lunches to all the children in the community,” she continued, and explained that many children from St. James benefited from that program. The children just had to go to the various bus stops to get their food.
“I thought, ‘well, maybe St. James School could help with the evening dinners,’” she said.
They had to work with the Nebraska Department of Education Nutrition Services to set up a food distribution site.
“The department tried to make it as simple as they could,” she explained, “but still there were forms to fill out and standards to be kept.”
She said the parish accountant, Deb Polacek, helped a great deal with the detailed work. Nancy Murphy, one of the mothers from the school family, helped get the news out to the community and volunteered to be the first to help run meals from the kitchen out to the vehicles.
“Our cooks, Rocio Don Juan and Silvia Adame, have been doing a fantastic job,” Sister Mary Alma added. “We never know from day to day how many meals will be needed.
In just the first few days, the project became a community building event. For example, on the day the program began, the pastor of the United Church of Christ right across the street from the school offered a large sack full of homemade face masks to be given to the children.
“The parents were as appreciative of those as they were of the meals,” Sister Mary Alma said. “They went like hot cakes. We could use more for sure!”
St. James School is currently using meat from the school freezers, which they had planned to use in this last portion of the school year, before the coronavirus pandemic closed schools statewide. They are then purchasing fresh fruit, vegetables, and milk. The NDE food services will reimburse the school for the cost of the food.
St. James School, which opened in 1887, serves more than 100 students in grades pre-kindergarten through 6.
