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Starting May 30, the Troup County Food Truck will begin its summer route.

Diane Pain, director of school nutrition, said summertime is always a very exciting time for everyone.

“We love to use the food truck, and I know that kids love to see the food truck coming. They get very excited when they get to get food from the truck and don’t have to worry about paying for it,” Pain said.

According to Feeding America, in Troup County, there is an average of 22 percent of children under the age of 18 (pre-pandemic) facing food insecurity.

The idea for a food truck started in March 2021 when schools shut down due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Thinking outside the box, TCSS came up with a plan to make sure students could still receive hot meals during the shutdown and gave out thousands of meals.

The 18-foot food truck was purchased from Vending Trucks for a total of $165,855 and paid for by an $80,000 No Kids Hungry grant and $85,555 in CARES funding.

Pain said during the summertime the food truck typically sees a lot of kids and families come by for a bite.

“When we roll out the food truck, families actually bring out blankets and sit under the trees and start to have picnics. They’ll pull up their lawn chairs, the kids will grab their food, and have picnics out there for lunch every day,” Pain said. “Last year was the first year we were running, and it did very well. I expect now that we had it out and about for a full year that people know that it’s a school nutrition food truck and the meals provided on it are for children and are at no cost.”

She said the food truck will serve breakfast and lunch and will include hot meals like breakfast sandwiches, pizza, hamburgers and more.

Pain said that being able to give this type of service to kids and their families during the summer is very important.

“It’s very important that we provide services for nutrition over the summer. Unfortunately, for some children, food is a scarcity and the food truck helps a lot,” Pain said. “I think the food truck also makes getting a hot quality meal especially enjoyable. It’s a fun environment because we have music and they’re excited about it. We are happy to do this for the children.”

She said the food truck has established locations that can be found on the Troup County School System website. Children under the age of 18 can receive meals and do not have to be a student enrolled in TCSS schools.

TCSS summer food truck hours and locations are as follows:

West GA STAR

• 5/30 – 7/21
• Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 11:15 a.m.
• 1200 Whitesville Rd. (Phoenix Landing)

West GA STAR

• 5/30 — 7/21
• Monday through Friday from 12:15 p.m. to 12:30 p.m.
• 611 Borton St. (Phoenix Way Apartments)

GA STAR

• 5/30 — 7/21
• Monday through Friday from 11:25 a.m. to 11:40 a.m.
• 201 Chatham St. (The Phoenix Apartments)

Griggs Center

• 6/5 — 7/21
• Monday through Friday from 11:50 a.m. to 12:05 p.m.
• 716 Glenn Robertson Dr.