ALAMANCE COUNTY, N.C. (WGHP) — Across the Piedmont Triad, school districts are gearing up for summer break next month, but many students will still rely on school cafeterias for some of their daily meals.

School districts are preparing to continue to offer that service through their Summer Food Services Program.

An uptick in food prices and the ending of the P-EBT program this summer are both expected to impact family budgets and could lead to more families with kids turning to school districts this summer for breakfast or lunch.

The Alamance-Burlington School System, Asheboro City Schools and Guilford County Schools are some of the local districts that offer summer meals to kids ages 18 and under through the USDA-funded summer food service program.

Although many of the districts don’t know yet how many students they will need to serve this summer, they expect to receive money to feed as many students as they have in previous summers.

“They will fund us up to the amount that we provide. So the funding just fluctuates depending on our participation,” said Sandra Spivey Ayers, Asheboro City Schools finance officer.

Asheboro City Schools served more than 10,000 lunches in the past two summers. While the district will have one site serving meals to children who walk in and get a free meal, the majority of kids eating the summer meals will be on school campuses learning.

The Alamance-Burlington School System will have two dozen site locations. Some of them will offer breakfast, lunch and a snack, and school officials expect to serve 1,000 lunches each day during a nine-week period.

“It was much easier during COVID…because we were able to go into those communities and just drop off food. We’re not able to do that this summer. People will actually have to come to those sites, sit down and eat lunch,” said Les Atkins, Alamance-Burlington Schools public information officer.

Guilford County Schools says last year, the district served a total of 36,629 breakfasts and more than double that amount in lunches.

Guilford County Schools’ summer meal program will start In June and will serve breakfast and lunches at district schools, community sites and plans to have a mobile site that will be in area neighborhoods.

“We’re glad that we’re able to serve our community in this way during the summer. So many children go without, especially during the summer,” Atkins said.

The summer meal program is scheduled to begin next month for districts. Within the next two weeks, Guilford County Schools and Alamance Burlington Schools will release the dates and site locations for the program.

Asheboro City Schools summer meal services will be offered Monday through Thursday at Donna Lee Loflin Elementary. Breakfast runs from 7:30 a.m. to 8 a.m. Lunch runs from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. and will be held from June 12 to June 29 and from July 10 to Aug. 3.