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Photo Provided Bridgeport Middle School Principal Anne Haverty Lawson shows two meal packets that will be going home with a student starting last Friday as part of the weekend meal program. The packets contain multiple servings of easily prepared meals for a family.

BRIDGEPORT — Meals are again going home with students who might otherwise go hungry over the weekend.

This is the second school year Bridgeport Exempted Village School District is participating in the weekend meals program supported by Belmont County, and word is getting out. The weekend meals serve as a supplement to the breakfasts and lunches the district provides during the week.

Middle School Principal Anne Haverty Lawson is taking the lead in receiving and distributing the meals. She is working with Devin Cain, a volunteer and former board of trustees member with the Belmont County Farm Bureau, who organized the initiative to help area school districts.

Haverty Lawson said soon after she posted an announcement on the district app and a questionnaire for families, more than 30 families in the district notified her that they wanted to receive meals.

By the supply delivery day Oct. 14, a total of 54 families had asked to receive meals. Families can call and register at any time.

The meals will go home with a household’s oldest child at the end of the day so families receiving weekend meals will not be singled out. Any student from preschool through high school who needs added food through the weekends is eligible.

Haverty Lawson said last year 65 families received weekend packets. Last school year, she noted 69 percent of the student population qualified for free and reduced cost meals.

“There are lots that need help, and I’m thankful that our district is willing to participate in this,” she said. “It’s a lot of work on the admin team’s part to get this done.”

Her eighth grade talented and gifted students pack the boxes.

“They’ll pack ahead for me, and then we’ll deliver them to classrooms on Fridays so that they can go home over the weekend,” she said. “In the next week and a half, we’ll have enough packed for a month.”

Cain said they provide simple and nutritional meals that are easy to prepare, such as oatmeal and macaroni and cheese. He said with 130 packets sent home each weekend last school year, Bridgeport is among the four school districts with the most deliveries.

Other participating districts are Union Local, Bellaire Local and St. Clairsville-Richland City schools.

The oatmeal and macaroni and cheese packets have six servings each per meal, or 12 servings altogether.

“If the kids at school are hungry, I would think the parents would be hungry, too. We started this to try to get the whole family food,” he said, adding the number of recipients seems to increase every year.

“Everything looks good,” he said. “More people are getting the things that they need. It’s also sad there’s that many families in need just in Bridgeport.”

Thanks also go to Belmont County’s agencies. The program is fully funded through the Belmont County Department of Job and Family Services using Temporary Assistance for Needy Families dollars.

“We’re still being funded through Job and Family Services. I turn in to them who are getting the backpacks from Bridgeport. They send me back information of what the kids qualify under their program, and they help pay for the meals.”

The meals delivered to the district Oct. 14 will last until the end of January, then Cain will make a second shipment for the remainder of the school year.

“Bridgeport got 87 boxes each,” he said, for a total of 174 boxes. “There’s 36 packages in each one.”

This amounts to almost 19,000 servings of oatmeal and 19,000 servings of macaroni and cheese.

The next round of meals will be packed by an automated system run by the Outreach Program. Cain said the next volunteer community packing event will be set for November 2025.

“I appreciate all the community support, commissioner support, Job and Family Services support. If it wasn’t for everybody, this program wouldn’t be able to keep going,” he said. “Everybody supported us 100% and look forward to it every year, knowing the kids are getting what they need.”

Anyone who wishes to participate in the weekend meal program can contact Haverty Lawson at 740-635-0853, ext. 1014.