CASTLEFORD, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) — Usually, schools receive state grants to buy food for their nutritional programs. Still, this year, local schools received money to improve the technology behind these programs.

The USDA provides funds for Technology Improvement Grants, which school districts across Idaho receive. State Department of Education Director of Child Nutrition Lynda Westphal said the grants are meant to help schools purchase updated devices or software for their nutrition services.

“It could be pin pads that the kids enter their number in to count the meals. It’s tablets in child care to count the meals. It’s upgraded technology for some of the food service offices,” Westphal explained.

Castleford School District received a grant worth $12,271. They were able to buy a bar code scanner and software to ensure students are being fed according to USDA guidelines. Nutrition Director Kim Aguirre said the scanner is helping speed up lunch lines.

“They have to have grains, they have to have fruits, they have to have vegetables, they have to have their milk and their meats. So the program will tell me if they’re lacking anything,” Aguirre said.

Aguirre said without the grant money, the district wouldn’t have been able to upgrade its equipment.

“Coming into this position I was told that we are on a really tight budget. So if we wouldn’t have gotten the grants we would not have been able to make any kind of upgrades this year,” Aguirre said.

Westphal added that it helps free up money in a school’s nutritional budget, which benefits small and rural schools. Even a five-dollar grant can make a difference.

“For the smaller schools, five thousand could be a month’s worth of food,” Westphal added.

The State Department of Education plans to open up another round of grant applications starting in November. Westphal said the department would inform schools when it was time to apply.

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