An interview with Lisa Purchase and Jenna Noffsinger, food service directors for both school districts.

Video By Emma J. Kelly
Current Contributor

There are two public schools in Benzie County, Michigan: roughly 1,500 students at Benzie County Central Schools and 500 at Frankfort Elberta Area Schools. More than 50 percent are considered “economically disadvantaged,” meaning that, when school is in-session, they receive two free or reduced-price meals per day.

Since Michigan schools closed on Friday, March 13, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, both schools are continuing to serve meals to students. Bus drivers are continuing to drive their normal routes twice a week. Instead of picking up students, they are dropping off food.

The Betsie Current interviewed Lisa Purchase and Jenna Noffsinger—the food service directors for Benzie and Frankfort school districts, respectively—about the new meal-delivery programs.

Want to sign up for meals to be delivered from a school to your home? Call 231-882-9653 for Benzie County Central Schools; call 231-352-7601 for Frankfort-Elberta Area Schools.

This is the first in a series of stories that The Betsie Current intends to tell about Benzie County during the COVID-19 pandemic: “good news” stories about resiliency, adaptation, ingenuity, compassion, and shared humanity. Video production by Emma J. Kelly, with Aubrey Ann Parker serving as Supervising Producer. Music: Chris Haugen – “Fresh Fallen Snow”; Nat Keefe with The Bow Ties – “Angeline the Baker”. Read the accompanying article here. See the accompanying photo essay by Mackenna Kelly here.

Full Disclosure: Aubrey Ann Parker, editor and co-owner of The Betsie Current, is an FEAS school board member and a BCCS soccer coach.