knorth@theintelligencer.net
T-L Photo/KIM NORTH
THE BRIDGEPORT Exempted Village School District and its food service staff are presented with the Children’s Hunger Alliance Child Nutrition Award. Pictured, from left, are Rick Oxley, representing Children’s Hunger Alliance; Bridgeport Exempted Village School District Food Service Director Donna Burlenski; and Bridgeport Exempted Village School District Superintendent Brent Ripley.
BRIDGEPORT When schools across the nation were shut down last spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic, one in five children approximately 529,000, across Ohio were deemed food insecure.
That wasn’t the case in the Bridgeport Exempted Village School District, though. Members of the food service staff and volunteers coordinated meals that families picked up at the school, ensuring that the students had access to food to meet their nutritional needs. And when students returned to their classrooms, whether full time or under a hybrid in-person/rem