Dear North Adams Public Schools Families,
Earlier this week, the federal government announced that it will not be using contingency funds to pay SNAP nutrition benefits for the month of November during the U.S. government shutdown. We understand the unsettled feelings this brings to many of our families and want to share information about the relevant services we provide and funding we receive.
North Adams Public Schools receives funding that supplies all of our students with free nutritious breakfast and lunch through the National School Lunch Program, and dinner through the Child and Adult Care Food Program. Currently, there are no planned changes to this funding and we will continue to provide meals every school day to our students, free of charge. We will continue to monitor funding decisions at both the state and federal levels and will provide any updates as we receive them.
If your family is interested in additional resources for food assistance, Project Bread's FoodSource Hotline, https://projectbread.org/foodsource-hotline, offers FoodSource hotline counselors, available in 180 languages, to help families find food assistance through other sources, such as the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Program and local food pantries. Additionally, the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition has a resource guide that includes local meal sites and can be found here.
Please reach out to familysupports@napsk12.org if you have any questions or need additional assistance. We deeply care about the wellbeing of our students and our community.
Sincerely,
Tim Callahan, Ed.D
Superintendent