Turnout surpasses estimated numbers at Washington County Schools food distribution

WASHINGTON CO., Tenn. (WJHL)—Cars line up in the back of Boones Creek Elementary School a half hour earlier than the week before for food distribution, a time that was moved up to accommodate the demand.

Washington County Schools has various locations where it offers free food for the summer. At Boones Creek Elementary School, boxes are distributed with food meant to last for seven days every Wednesday. The original time was from 12 until 12:30 p.m.

Wednesday, Ed Surcey was in line waiting for his box.

“It helps us a lot,” said Surcey. “It helps us through the week.”

Surcey said he’s disabled and cannot work. The food distribution helps provide for his child, Jane. Surcey said inflated prices have been a problem.

“Yeah, the prices are so high,” said Surcey. “You just have to get what you get and ration it out and make it last until you can do it again.”

The school system’s nutrition director, Caitlin Shew, said last week that 150 boxes were prepared to distribute, and they ran out, leaving some cars to drive away empty-handed. However, Shew said they planned ahead for this week, had 250 boxes prepared for distribution, and could make more if needed.

“What we’ve noticed are a lot more families are needing the service than what we expected,” said Shew. “We referenced COVID days when we were planning this distribution, so that’s what we went off of.”

Cars received boxes filled with items like a loaf of bread, a head of lettuce, milk and more. Each kid was also sent home with a hot meal, which included pizza, baked beans and corn.

The program serves any child under 18 years old, no questions asked. Shew said the family does not need to be in the school district. Folks came from places like Johnson City to Kingsport. As more cars come, Shew said they’ll adapt.

“We’ll bulk up our orders and bring in more employees and try to service as many families as we can,” said Shew.

Cars will keep coming until distribution ends on July 17.

“[We’ll keep coming] until as long as we can, and we’ll figure out something else,” said Surcey.

Shew said they ended the day by giving out 251 boxes, which equals over 3,500 individual meals for kids. Next week, Shew said they plan to increase to over 300 boxes ready to distribute.

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