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Indianapolis School District Uses Food Truck to Give Thousands of Students Free Lunch

Jul 27, 2017 12:00:00 AM

by Mike "Orie" Mosley

For some kids in Indianapolis, access to quality food doesn't seem to be an option during the summertime. It's why the Indianapolis Public School District (IPS) has launched an initiative to change that. Last summer, IPS served 59,154 meals to kids across 34 sites, according to Indy Star. But this year, they wanted to do even more. IPS launched the Bus Stop Cafe this summer. After realizing that some students weren’t able to make it to the school sites where food was being served, they decided to bring the food to them. Each morning, in addition to serving meals at the 34 sites, the Bus Stop Cafe opens at two locations within the Stratford Homes Apartments. Without this, kids living in Stratford would have to walk approximately 12 minutes to the closest school.

The menu varies each day, with a recent meal being breaded chicken nuggets and corn. With the addition of the food truck,[pullquote position=“right”]IPS has served 64,208 meals this summer[/pullquote], with over 3,000 coming from the food truck alone. "As Indiana's largest school district and being in a metropolitan area, we have families that do struggle to make ends meet," Kruse said. "Our job is to make sure these kids can get nutritious meals so they can fill themselves through their summer."
Photo by Michelle Pemberton/Indy Star.

Mike "Orie" Mosley

Mike "Orie" Mosley was most recently a social media associate for Education Post. Orie also contributes to websites such as TheGrio.com, TheRoot.com and CurlyNikki.com where he focuses on writing editorial and news-style content highlighting positive African-American culture. He has also served as a social media manager for CurlyNikki.com. Orie is a graduate of Columbia College Chicago and holds a master of arts in higher education administration from Louisiana State University. Raised in St. Louis, he is a Cardinals fan and a lover of St. Louis-style pizza.

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