Amid all the negative news surrounding COVID-19, there are a few shining lights that remind us that the world is still a great place.
Once all schools were ordered to be closed, the Manitowoc Public School District stepped up to help their students and families by offering free lunches at Franklin, Madison, and Jefferson Elementary Schools.
We stopped out to Franklin Elementary and spoke with Chris Taylor, who works at the school in the kitchen, and she said when the school district asked for volunteers, she jumped at the opportunity.
“We want to make sure, as a community hot lunch program, we feed our children,” Taylor told SeehaferNews.com. “Families can know they can depend on us, and come to us for a breakfast meal and a lunch meal.”
As for what is all included in these meals, Taylor said they are keeping it very healthy, and used many non-perishable food items. She explained that “Each breakfast gets white milk; each lunch bag gets chocolate milk. For the lunch bags we have a PB and J…carrots, yogurt cup, we have a slush cup, which is considered a fruit…so they get their grain, their fruit, their veggie and their dairy in their bags every day…We want to make sure there is stuff in there that doesn’t expire right away, because we don’t want that to sit in the homes, and we don’t want that to sit here.”
We asked Taylor how many people have been utilizing this service, and she said “We have been seeing about 139…meals that we handed out” each day. She also said that Madison and Jefferson elementary schools were seeing just as many, if not more. On average, about 450 bagged lunches and breakfasts have been handed out between 11:30 and 1:00 every weekday.
Taylor also wanted to reiterate that all students in Manitowoc, including those in private schools, can take advantage of this program, which may actually be expanding to other schools in the near future.
The student does not need to be present to get the meal either. The parent, guardian, grandparent or whomever just needs to drive up, roll down their window and request however many bags they need, and Taylor and her crew, which includes her son, will give you however many you need.
