Nantucket School Committee Approves Food Policies, Accepts Nourish Nantucket Partnership

NANTUCKET -- April 14, 2026, Nantucket School Committee unanimously approved three food-related policies and accepted a Nourish Nantucket plan to provide free summer meals to all island children beginning this summer. Executive Director Meg Browers and Program Manager Lori Richards told the committee that roughly one in two Nantucket public school students qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, and that the nonprofit will operate daily grab-and-go breakfasts and lunches out of a new commercial kitchen on Boynton Lane, no application required, during the six weeks coinciding with summer school. Superintendent Beth Howell called the arrangement a solution to a chronic gap, saying the district's food contractor Chartwells "hasn't been able to do anything" in the summer because kitchen staff take other jobs. Chief Financial Officer Martin Angeloff reported total district spending is running $2,133,000 above last year, with payroll up $1,170,000, though the school lunch program reversed a $92,000 prior-year deficit to show a roughly $22,000 positive balance, driven by higher meal volume and updated federal reimbursement rates of $4.65 per lunch and $2.46 per breakfast. Committee member Vince Murphy, returning from the MASC Day on the Hill, warned that "budgets are going to be sharply tightened over the next few fiscal years."