What NC schools are doing to help feed hungry students during coronavirus closures
Hundreds of thousands of North Carolina students are in danger of going hungry while public schools are closed for the next two weeks to try to slow the spread of coronavirus.
School districts and community groups around the state are ramping up their efforts to provide food to students through the end of March — and potentially much longer — while schools are shut down. With 60% of North Carolina’s 1.5 million public school students qualifying for free-and-reduced price lunches, the community need is significant.
“There’s a recognition that these children depend on the school meals and they need to be fed even though the virus is here,” Tamara Baker, communications director for No Kid Hungry NC, said in an interview Tuesday.
No Kid Hungry NC has compiled a list of sites around the state where students can get free school meals during the coronavirus closures. The list can be found on its website, http://nokidhungrync.org/.
Many NC children are food insecure
The large number of students who rely on school meals was on the minds of school officials last week as they weighed whether to close. According to No Kid Hungry, 21% of North Carolina children live in households that are “food insecure,” meaning they don’t have reliable access to sufficient and nutritious food.
“This is extremely important,” Wake County school board chairman Keith Sutton said Monday. “This was one of the, quite frankly, main concerns that we had about making the decision to close, that we would be sending kids home who oftentimes depend on the meals that they receive at school as part of their daily nutrition.”
Gov. Roy Cooper’s executive order on Saturday ordered the school closings and took the issue out of the hands of individual districts. As part of his executive order, Cooper created a task force to look into issues such as providing meals to students while schools are closed.
North Carolina was helped by a waiver it received from the federal government that gives schools more flexibility in how and where meals are served. As a result, many school districts are using “grab-n-go” meals where parents can pick up food curbside at select locations.
Wake schools starts feeding program
On Tuesday, the Wake County school system began distributing hot lunches and cold breakfasts for pickup at 16 sites. The sites, which can be found at www.wcpss.net/food, will be open from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on weekdays.
“I know that everybody wants to get the food out to those kids and they (child nutrition staff) were just when can we do it?” Jessica Jones, a Wake child nutrition services specialist, said Tuesday. “We are all just wanting to be here and help with whatever needs to be done.”
Jones was among the people working in Wake Forest High School’s cafeteria to prepare meals for distribution.
The new flexibility means some school districts are using school buses to distribute meals to students. The state Department of Public Instruction sent a reminder Tuesday that motorists still need to stop when the red lights are flashing and the stop-arm is deployed on a school bus.
Paul Koh, Wake’s assistant superintendent for student support services, said the district isn’t using the bus option yet as it weighs the risk of coronavirus exposure from delivering meals directly to students.
“How can we do things in a way to give parents what they need without putting more people at risk of exposure?” Koh said.
Other school districts plan to feed children
On Monday, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools began a program where parents can pick up lunches and snacks for their children at more than 20 community sites. Information can be found at https://www.chccs.org/Page/10491.
Also on Monday, Orange County Schools began a program where parents can pick up meals at six sites and the district is dropping off food at three other locations. Information can be found on the district’s home page at http://www.orangecountyfirst.com/.
On Tuesday, Chatham County Schools began distributing breakfasts and lunches at three schools. Go to https://bit.ly/2TYvQAD for more information.
The Johnston County school system will begin offering curbside pickup for meals Wednesday at 13 schools. Go to https://bit.ly/38Tp6Id for more information.
Durham Public Schools will begin providing meals and snacks on Monday to 67 schools and community sites. Go to https://bit.ly/2WooVlU for more information.
Community groups support feeding efforts
Paula De Lucca, Wake’s director of child nutrition services, said they’re set up to serve 1,600 meals a day but can increase based on demand. But Wake has 161,907 students, more than 50,000 of whom qualify for free-or-reduced price lunch.
Baker of No Kid Hungry said that the meals provided by community groups will help increase the number of students served in Wake and statewide.
The Inter-Faith Food Shuttle has begun producing thousands of frozen meals to distribute for free to children and families who can’t get meals at schools. But the group says it needs money to help pay the $2 per meal cost to produce them.
More information can be found at https://bit.ly/391x1TY.
“We want to put food into the hands of children,” said Laura Rice, a spokeswoman for the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle.
The Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina is working with school systems and community groups to help families both during the next two weeks and for however long the coronavirus shutdown lasts, according to Jennifer Caslin, a spokeswoman for the food bank.
Caslin said they’re changing focus now to providing families with dry goods and shelf-stable items that people can use over an extended period of time.
To reduce exposure risks, Caslin said the food bank is encouraging people to donate money online instead of dropping off food. Information on the food bank’s COVID-19 efforts, including how to donate, can be found at https://foodbankcenc.org/food-bank-covid-19-preparedness/.
“Everything is so fluid,” Caslin said. “We re definitely aware in our 34-county service area there are nearly 600,000 people who area food insecure and this is going to set them back for awhile.”
Where to get food for students
▪ Wake County: www.wcpss.net/food
▪ Durham Public Schools: https://bit.ly/2WooVlU
▪ Johnston County: https://bit.ly/38Tp6Id
▪ Chapel Hill-Carrboro: https://www.chccs.org/Page/10491
▪ Orange County: http://www.orangecountyfirst.com
▪ Chatham County: https://bit.ly/2TYvQAD
▪ No Kid Hungry NC has a statewide link to sites that can be found on http://nokidhungrync.org/.
This story was originally published March 17, 2020 at 5:34 PM.
