By JOYANNA LOVE/Senior Staff Writer

CLANTON —Chilton County Schools has received a National League of Cities grant to establish an At-Risk Afterschool Feeding Program and expand the Summer Feeding Program.

The school system’s Child Nutrition department received $12,000 for Clanton schools.

The program will begin on March 1.

Child nutrition director Melody Bailey said the funds will be used to cover any overtime that may occur for school employees working with the program. Cafeteria employees will prepare the food for these programs.

The program also receives reimbursement to cover the cost of the food based on how many students are served. Bailey said the grant allows the At-Risk Afterschool Feeding program to begin and gives the program time to work out schedules to avoid overtime in the future.

“Where the football players were having to pay for their snacks, and parents were having to make that provision regardless of what the eligibility [for free/reduced lunch] of those students were, whereas this would be free to all students regardless of their eligibility so this will definitely help parents,” Bailey said. “One of the stipulations is that we simply provide a time for either tutoring or homework time and an educational component.”

Bailey said the food opportunity will be open to afterschool extracurricular activities, not just athletes.

The YMCA is also being added as a site. Bailey said food will be transported from school kitchens to the site.

Although not funded through the grant, an afterschool location will also be established at Maplesville.

“They will be our only K-12 for this, and then we anticipate expanding to other schools,” Bailey said.

The YMCA will also be a location for the Summer Feeding program. Additional Clanton sites are needed for the summer program. Bailey said she is looking for locations where students would be meeting “at a regular basis” during the summer.

Summer children programs that would be interested in being a location for the feeding program can contact Bailey at mmbailey@chilton.k12.al.us for more information.