Zakk Matthews, 12, reads to friends at lunch on the bus.
It’s lunchtime on the bright red Read and Feed school bus and Chastity Walker, in an orchid-pink blouse and plastic gloves is prying a Styrofoam tray from a stack.
Tonging a steaming hamburger on a wheat bun from an insulated box and a plastic clam of lettuce and a tomato slice onto the tray, she turns and bends down to a little girl of about five in a sunny yellow T-shirt emblazoned with a sparkling silver butterfly, pink sandals and a smile.
“Would you like peaches or applesauce?” Walker said.
“Peaches, please!” said the little girl. “I like peaches.”
“Okay. Don’t forget your milk. And don’t forget to pick out a book,” Walker said.
From a big green Tupperware stuffed with books like “Goodnight Moon” “All about Race Cars“ and “Oh the Places You’ll Go,” a volunteer helps her choose a book.
At this stop, there are about ten kids on the bus between the ages of two and fourteen. The bus, on loan from Radford University, has been redesigned with the seats around the sides so everybody can see each other.
The little girl finds a space, puts her tray on the seat and, swinging a knee up, she clambers onto the big bus seat with milk in one fist and a book called “Franklin’s Blanket” in the other.
Up front, lunch lady Chastity Walker is helping the next child. She usually works in the cafeteria at Radford High School, but since early June, she and bus driver Judy Simpkins drive the Radford Public School’s Summer Food Service Program Read and Feed school bus.
The bus brings lunches to kids who miss them when school is out and can’t get to the city’s schools and library where they are being served. Monday through Thursday, Walker and Simpkins travel among Willow Woods, Fairfax Village and Riverbend apartments, spending thirty minutes at each site. The bus visits Radford Public Library Tuesday through Thursday at noon.
“We have enough to feed about 40 kids every day,” Walker said. “There’s more work involved, but it’s enjoyable,” she said. “The kids are sweet: very polite and grateful.”
“And what kid doesn’t love their lunch lady?” Judy said from the driver’s seat.
This year, the USDA Summer Food Service Program plans to serve more than 200 million free meals to children 18 years and under in the US.
To keep kids engaged and coming back, the program encourages the nation’s schools to combine lunches with activities like arts and crafts, tutoring, mentoring, drama, sports, computer training, music, gardening, even cooking.
The extra activity for Radford’s program is reading addressing the two things that happen when school is out.
First, it feeds kids who would miss meals, and second, it tries to fend off ‘The Summer Slump’.
Not only do kids miss nutritious meals in the summer, but research finds that many children, especially struggling readers, forget some of what they’ve learned in both math and reading over the summer.
McHarg second-grade teacher Gloria Boyd is “That Book Lady,” delivering loads of books onto the Radford Read and Feed bus with Chasity Walker. Children read as they lunch and can take a book home.
Studies find that US students, by sixth grade, can lose up to two grade levels of reading skills due to summer reading loss.
So, this summer, Radford Public Schools is working with the Radford Public Library’s Summer Reading Program to address these two problems in one bite.
As kids eat, a volunteer reads to them, or, interestingly, they read to each other.
The little girl has climbed up onto the bus seat beside Zakk Matthews, who is twelve. He opens the book for her and she settles on one side of him.
A little boy in cowboy boots chewing his hamburger, slides over on his other side. As everybody eats, swapping applesauce for peaches, Zakk reads about Franklin, who is a tortoise, and his blue blanket, reading a page, then lifting the book to show everybody the pictures. He is a good reader.
University studies showing that in low-income areas, summertime learning loss – in reading and math – during elementary school has a cumulative effect and accounts for two-thirds of the achievement gap seen in high school.
“I’m committed to getting books into every home and into the hands of every child,” Gloria Boyd said as she and Mrs. Walker haul another tub of books onboard the bus. Boyd is “That Book Lady.” She’s a second grade teacher at McHarg Elementary working to collect and supply lightly used books to kids through Little Free Libraries, well-child visits, and feeding programs like this.
In the tub, she’s got books for all reading levels.
“I’ve included board books for babies who had accompanied their siblings, picture books, non-fiction books at different levels of difficulty and some chapter books,” she said.
She’ll check in each week to make sure there is always a supply and thinks kids take home 75-100 books a week.
Then, the thirty minutes and lunch is over. The little girl can take Franklin the tortoise home with her.
Over the summer, until August 1, volunteers like That Book Lady, local news reporters, teachers,, citizens, even Robert Graham, the superintendent of schools read will come read to the kids on the bus.
Radford’s ‘Read and Feed’ program, is a two-month program that relies precariously on grant funding and the cooperation of the schools, the library to create a routine for kids, an opportunity to practice reading every day and building relationships among Radford’s kids, grown-ups, and the community.
For more information about early literacy and to get book recommendations, visit That Book Lady at www.facebook.com/yourfirstteacher.
