WELLMAN

It’s not every week that Mid-Prairie’s school board members are treated to meat sticks at their meetings, but that is what happened Monday night when Nutrition Director Marci Stanfield had the floor. The snack sticks were made of pork, and they were just a handful of the 14,000 Stanfield had acquired for students through the Deb & Jeff Hansen Foundation.

“Marci cares exponentially about making sure our kids are fed and that they’ve got good food and they’re not hungry,” Superintendent Brian Stone said. “She wants to make sure their bellies are full. She’ll tell the teachers, ‘I want their bellies full so that’s not a problem for you in the classroom.’”

Stanfield has been a member of the Mid-Prairie staff for seven years, working as a cook for the first five years before becoming nutrition director. A grandmother of 15, “All I have done most of my life is feed kids,” she said. “I know what kids like to eat. I know what kids don’t like. I like to hide vegetables, and I’m good at it.”

She also is constantly on the lookout for resources that will keep Mid-Prairie’s kids fed, whether they are at school or not. When she learned of the Deb & Jeff Hansen Foundation, a nonprofit formed by the owners of Iowa Select Farms, a family-owned pork production company, she took advantage of what they offer schools: ham and bread coupons and pork sticks for distribution to students at risk for food insecurity.

The coupons, which Stanfield showed the board, can be redeemed at any local grocery store or market – including JW’s Foods and Freeman Foods – for $8 worth of ham and $3 of bread.

When it comes to the distributing the coupons and pork sticks, “I don’t like to discriminate,” Stanfield said. She offers them to all students and leaves acceptance up to them.

“I’ll do anything to make sure they get something to eat,” Stanfield told the board.

While board members struggled to open their vacuum-sealed snack sticks, the Oct. 14 regular meeting progressed, with the board approving the appointment of Level 1 Investigators (those who will investigate allegations of abuse of students by school employees) and passing a resolution allowing additional spending authority in the amount of $36,944 for the district’s Limited English Proficiency program.

The Mid-Prairie school board will next meet on Monday, Oct. 28 at 6:15 p.m. in the Central Office Community Room for a work session.