The curbside feeding programs that started in March after schools closed will continue through summer, and school districts are reporting record numbers of meals served and steady demand.
Waco ISD served 30,000 meals last week at its various pickup locations, and Midway ISD served 1,000 meals a day in the last week. The curbside model is a major departure from a traditional summer feeding program, which would require students to congregate and eat together at a set location.
Midway ISD spokeswoman Traci Marlin said after tinkering with its pickup locations throughout the spring, the district has hit its stride and likely won’t add or remove feeding locations for the rest of the year.
“We have had tons more this year than we’ve had in past years, kind of a continuation of all the meals we had going out during [the school year],” Marlin said.
The outbreak of the coronavirus hit McLennan County during spring break in early March. Schools were delayed from reopening after spring break on March 16, and eventually campuses were ordered closed for the remainder of the school year.
Marlin said the district typically served only 100 meals a day during summer and is now up to 10 times that number. The district, which is offering the meals to all children regardless of whether or not they attend a Midway school, now has three pickup locations and four buses that act as mobile sites.
“As soon as the schools closed in March, we had a tremendous response to having meals,” Marlin said. “At first we couldn’t seem to do enough of them. We were hitting 9,000, 10,000, 11,000 meals. As we were going along it just kept going up and up and up.”
Like many districts, Midway opted to send home breakfasts and lunches for several days on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Unlike Waco ISD, the district isn’t permitted to serve dinners under USDA regulations because not enough students qualify for free and reduced lunches.
‘For all kids’
Marlin said the district served 12,125 meals during the last week of the school year in May.
“It’s for all kids, they don’t have to be a Midway ISD student or from a low income family,” Marlin said.
Marlin said when the program was new, the district received messages and calls from onlookers concerned that not everyone picking up a meal was really in need, either because their vehicles seemed too expensive or for some other reason.
“There’s no way for us to know, we don’t need to ask what their situation is, they just need to have children,” Marlin said.
Cliff Reece, Child Nutrition Services Director for Waco ISD, said despite the upheaval of the last several months, the district is serving roughly the same number of children that it would serve during a typical summer. He estimates the district served 30,000 meals last week, but the numbers fluctuate as new sites are added and dropped.
Waco ISD also serves all children, not just those enrolled in the district.
—WACOTRIB