With one campus each in Odessa and Midland, IDEA Public Schools is offering summer meals through July 21.
Summer meals include breakfast and lunch and must be eaten in the cafeteria of any IDEA campus Monday through Friday.
Breakfast is served from 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. and lunch from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Food service will be closed on federal holidays and from July 3-7.
Vice President of Schools for IDEA Public Schools of the Permian Basin Aaron Fong said this is the second year IDEA has provided summer meals and they hope to continue it.
“Any child, whether you are an IDEA student or not, is welcome to come to one of our campuses entering through the front entrance. Adults should plan to bring form of stay verified identification, because we do have summer school running through the summer and just as an added precaution. We just want to ensure that we are being extra cautious with who we’re allowing on campus. But in terms of the meal, show up, we’ll lead you to the cafeteria for either breakfast or lunch. We do ask that you do eat your meal in the cafeteria. Meals are free of charge — 100% — for anyone 18 or younger. Anyone over the age of 18, we will charge a small fee per item a la carte or $5 for a full meal,” Fong said.
He added that it’s no questions asked.
Some days only a handful of people show up, but other days there are several tables with people dining.
“The sad but unacceptable truth in our country is that one out of six students in the state of Texas is considered food insecure meaning they’re unsure of where their next meal might come from at times. During the school year, two out of their three meals are provided at the school. What we want to do is ensure that when families are transitioning from the school year to the summer it’s seamless and students will not have to worry about those two meals,” Fong said.
He added that the last thing a learner should have to worry about is their next meal.
“If we can just take one less insecurity away from them we know that they will have far more likelihood to thrive. Also, a healthy body creates a healthy mind which is conducive to learning,” Fong said.
The public charter school has IDEA Yukon at 7300 E. Yukon Road in Odessa and IDEA Travis at 900 E. Gist Ave. in Midland.
They use state and federal funds to pay for the child nutrition program.
“Where we’re located, where Yukon is it’s off of Faudree Road close to 191, so our proximity to (State Highway) 191 makes it easy for Odessa and our proximity to Business Highway 20 in Midland makes Travis pretty accessible,” Fong said.
Fong said it doesn’t matter what city you live in if you want meals.
“It matters not what city you live in. It matters not what school you go to. All are welcome,” he added.
Fong said he wants to give a shout out to the Child Nutrition Service Workers who are cooking, preparing, washing and cleaning.
“They’re very driven by their mission to see no child go hungry and we really appreciate the hard work that they’re putting in this summer to do their piece and accomplishing our mission of college for all. In case it hasn’t been made clear, we will be closed on federal holidays so we will not have our program running on those days,” Fong said.
Summer school is currently going on at both schools.
“Its main intention is to provide supplementary instruction for those students who might need a little bit of extra instruction due to their performance in the preceding year. It can also serve the purpose of filling in the gaps of learning loss for chronically absent students. We just want people to be able to enter the ‘23-‘24 school year well prepared for that school year,” Fong said.
He added that they expect more than 1,000 students at IDEA Yukon next fall. School starts Aug. 2.
“We are proud to say we will be serving in our academy, kindergarten through fifth grade, and our college prep sixth through eighth grade. In totality, that’s kindergarten through eighth grade,” Fong said.
They are adding a grade a year.
At IDEA Travis, it is prekindergarten through eighth grade due to the partnership with Midland ISD.
“Travis has the unique advantage of partnership with MISD which allows them to still offer pre-K, but the pre-K program is being phased out of IDEA’s model due to the fact that we have found that our kindergarteners because … our kindergarten model is so strong that we are able to get kindergarteners on track to reading on grade level as successfully as we would without,” Fong said.
He added that IDEA does take special education students.
“We do take special ed students. Special ed students have just as much chance through our lottery system as general ed students in terms of being offered a seat,” Fong said.
