Local schools give out more than half-a-million meals during summer 2025

By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1

Enough food needed to feed everyone in Barren County 11 times over was distributed last summer.

The 2020 census put Barren County’s population at 44,485 people — that number is likely closer to 46,563 in 2026. Glasgow, Barren and Caverna schools distributed 510,189 meals during the summer months of 2025, according to information provided by Barren County Nutrition Services Operations Manager Lisa Yarberry, Glasgow Independent’s Food Service Director Stacy Jessie and Caverna’s Director of Food Services Operations Donnie Wilson.

All Barren County Schools locations were grab-and-go with the exception of Red Cross Elementary, Yarberry said. Glasgow Independent Schools served meals through congregate feeding, meaning students ate the meals at the location, in addition to other locations, like summer camps, according to Jessie.

Caverna Independent Schools distributed its meals thanks to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Non-Congregate meals program, which allows “sponsors…to provide meals to children through pick-up or delivery,” Wilson said.

Eleven million meals were distributed across Kentucky between May 2025 and August 2025, according to data from No Kid Hungry Kentucky, the Kentucky Department of Education and Feeding Kentucky. That number is up from the 8.1 million distributed in 2024 and the 5.3 million given out during summer 2023, according to a department press release.

In a first, summer meals were distributed in all of Kentucky’s 120 counties, which can be attributed to the widespread availability of SUN Meals to Go program — which is another name for the rural non-congregate program, according to the department stated.

“Children who depend on school lunch and breakfast can now access healthy summer meals in every Kentucky county,” said Cathy Gallagher, summer food service program manager at the Kentucky Department of Education. “My staff and I are honored to help many school districts and other organizations close the hunger gap so that children are supported. This helps ensure that kids return to school healthy and ready to learn at the end of summer.”