A man wearing a face mask and plastic gloves got school-packed food for his kids. A woman, accompanied by a preschooler, received boxed meals through the car window and drove away quickly. Another lady said she was so grateful to hear that the area was giving away milk. The last time she visited the local market, she couldn’t find any.
As parents and students woke up to the news that California public schools might be closed for the school year’s remainder, L.A. school authorities opened the campus gates to what they mentioned would be the very first of several morning meal pickups in the months and weeks ahead.
The United States’ second biggest school district, Los Angeles Unified, has been training lots of volunteers for this, and ramping up many services to provide food to over a million students, and even their own families.
Around 80% of students from families with low income may qualify to get breakfast, lunch and at times, dinner from school.
Around 400,000 “grab-and-go” food packages were prepared. They are now ready to be distributed between 7:00 and 10:00 a.m, Wednesday, at 60 pickup locations throughout the district. The sites are arranged for walk-up and drive-through distribution. Authorities say that they’ll make adjustments in the upcoming days, depending on how many students and their families will show up.
Why do these grab-and-go meals Around Southern California can change the entire school year?
Even when there’s no pandemic, several students depend on their schools for healthy, nutritious food. Several charter schools and districts around Southern California advertised free grab-and-go food for children. As of Thursday, the L.A. Unified School District alone had distributed almost 55 million meals to adults and students.
Many school districts were able to provide food packages to more children because, after schools closed back in March, the USDA eliminated some of the normal rules governing these meal programs.
Waiving these normal rules in terms of summer meal programs and area eligibility meant they can, in essence, implement a universal food program for all students.
As coronavirus spreads throughout the U.S., child care facilities and schools are balancing their roles of helping to prevent transmission with ensuring food access for kids who depend on the government’s food programs.
Snacks and meals from centers or schools fulfill up to ⅔ of kids’ nutritional needs. The meals they buy from school are generally healthier than those they are having at home.
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