Worried about going hungry during winter break? Wake schools will give free meals.
The Wake County school system will provide free meals to help feed children while schools are closed later this month during the two-week winter break.
Some low-income students go hungry when schools are closed because it’s the only place where they can get meals — even more so during the coronavirus pandemic. In response, the Wake County school system will provide a winter break meal bundle of eight breakfasts and eight lunches to any child under the age of 18, including those who aren’t district students.
“Child nutrition is just so grateful to be able to provide this service for all our students during the long winter break,” Paula De Lucca, Wake’s senior director of nutrition, said at Tuesday’s school board meeting.
The bundles will be distributed Dec. 21. But the deadline to request the meals is Friday to give the child nutrition staff time to prepare.
Go to https://bit.ly/2L01oE5 to sign up for the bundles. Paper copies of the form are also available at the school and community sites where food is now distributed to students.
Since the pandemic began, Wake has been providing free meals at schools and sites around the community on a daily basis. The district has been helped by the federal government allowing school districts to serve meals to all children, not just those who qualify for a free school meal.
Wake is suspending its meal distribution program from Dec. 22 to Jan. 1, so the meal bundles will be offered instead.
The meals will be distributed at several school and community sites on Dec. 21. In addition, the district will deliver meals to motels where some homeless students live.
