BRENHAM ISD MEALS RESTARTING APRIL 22ND

  

Students in the Brenham Independent School District will begin receiving meals again next week, but in a different manner.

Early Childhood Learning Center Principal Toni Schwartz hands cartons of milk to a happy recipient at Alton Elementary School. Meal services will resume April 22nd, albeit in a different manner. (Mark Whitehead)

Brenham School Superintendent Dr. Walter Jackson says the District plans to resume providing breakfast and lunch to students next Wednesday, April 22nd.  The free daily meal program was halted last week after fear that one of the workers had been exposed to COVID-19.  It was later learned that the worker had not been exposed.

Jackson says the meal program will not resume with the same operation as before.  Instead of daily meals prepared in the school cafeteria, the District is purchasing boxes of ready to eat, shelf stable meals.  Jackson says each box will contain food for one student for five days, including breakfast and lunch.  Parents will be able to pick up food for an entire week in one trip on Wednesdays.

Jackson explained that the District will receive the food on Tuesdays, and make it available on Wednesdays at two locations.  Food will be distributed at Brenham High School from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and at Goodwill Missionary Baptist Church from 11:30 to 12:30.  Each child present in the vehicle between the ages of 1 and 18 will receive a box of food, which will be placed in the trunk of the vehicle to maintain contact-less delivery.

Jackson says that besides providing meals for the students, the new plan accomplishes two other things….it decreases the amount of exposure to staff members and volunteers, and it keeps parents from having to drive every day to pick up food.  Jackson says no one imagined that schools would be closed for this length of time, and that the old way of feeding students was not sustainable.  He says many larger school districts in Houston have also adopted this program of distributing boxes of ready to eat meals for five days at a time.

Since the School District’s meal program will not resume until next Wednesday, April 22nd, parents are encouraged to seek additional aid from established local organizations.  This Friday from 11 ‘til 1, The Boys and Girls Club of Washington County will be distributing 200 food boxes from the Brazos Valley Food Bank at their building at 1710 East Tom Green Street in Brenham.  Families can also go online to www.forthecity.center for a list of all local food pantries distributing food during the COVID-19 crisis.  A group of Brenham restaurants have also been making lunches available for a limited number of kids each weekday.

 

What’s your Reaction?
+1
0
+1
0
+1
0
Back to top button