Every weekday during the summer, a familiar school bus makes its way across the Rocky Boy Reservation. But instead of bringing students to the classroom, it's bringing lunch to them.
Rocky Boy Public Schools' Summer Meal on Wheels program is helping bridge the summer hunger gap by delivering free meals to children at six centralized locations throughout the community. The mobile program now serves more than 450 children each day, providing over 2,000 meals each week to families who may otherwise struggle to access a traditional meal site.
The program was created to eliminate transportation barriers for families living in rural areas, where getting to a centralized meal location isn't always possible. Instead, the bus brings nutritious meals directly to neighborhoods across the reservation.
For parent Skylar Watson, the service has become a regular part of her family's summer.
"Whenever they have it available, we usually go," Watson said while waiting in line with her children. "Yeah, it's good for the kids. It's something they look forward to, and it's good to come together."
Among those waiting was Logan, one of the many children who receives meals from the bus throughout the summer. When asked about his favorite lunch so far, he didn't hesitate.
"I would say green beans and mashed potatoes," he said.
Lori Osgood, Rocky Boy Schools' food services supervisor said the need for the program has continued to grow as many families face financial challenges.
"It's really helped our community with so much poverty in the area and people unemployed and food stamps—SNAP, EBT getting cut," she explained. "A lot of our family members, community members, rely on our food program to feed their kids for the summer."
What began as a smaller effort has expanded significantly over the years.
"We've expanded it to the point where we're serving on our bus 450 kids a day, if not more," Osgood said.
The program is supported by the Montana Food Bank Network and No Kid Hungry, which help provide funding to strengthen summer meal programs in rural communities.
Kiera Condon with the Montana Food Bank Network said those partnerships are becoming increasingly important as families lose access to federal nutrition assistance.
"Feeding kids, especially in this moment, is more important than ever with the SNAP cuts," Condon said." We are doing anything we can to mitigate some of that harm. So, we give money out to summer programs that distribute food.”
Condon said the recent reduction in SNAP benefits has affected more than just grocery budgets.
"As of now, nearly 7,000 Montanans have lost access to SNAP," she said. "One of the ways that kids qualify for free or reduced-price lunch is actually if their household is on SNAP. So, if that household loses out on SNAP, that child is not only going to be losing out on food at home, but then losing out on food at school."
For Osgood, seeing children and families gather around the bus each day is a reminder of why the work matters.
"It feels really good," she said. "It's very rewarding."
As summer continues, the bright yellow bus will keep making its daily rounds across the Rocky Boy Reservation, delivering more than just meals—it delivers peace of mind to hundreds of families and helps ensure children have access to nutritious food until the school year begins again.
