FOX VALLEY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – School districts across the state are trying to keep students fed while classes are canceled.
Several in the Fox Valley started food programs Tuesday to provide free meals to their kids.
Hundreds of thousands of American children rely on free or reduced-price school meals every day.
Greg Hartjes, chief financial officer for the Appleton Area School District, tells FOX 11 the Fox Valley is no exception.
“We have approximately 6,000 students in our district that qualify for free or reduced lunch.”
Katie Kessen-Checki is a counselor at Hoover Elementary School in Neenah. She tells FOX 11 more than half of the school’s students get free or reduced lunches.
“We’re at about 65% free and reduced, so we have a very large diverse population that depend on the breakfast that we serve each day, and depend on the lunch that we serve each day.”
To help meet that need, the Neenah Joint School District handed out grab-and-go breakfast and lunch to any child younger than 18.
“It’s such a stressful time, and there’s so much unknown,” said Kessen-Checki. “The fact that we can give them a ‘known’ that this is going to be provided for them is just wonderful.”
Neenah parent Mary Jones says offering free meals during this statewide school closure is a big help.
“This is a fabulous idea!. We are a family of six with one income, so this helps tremendously!”
It was a grab-and-go situation in Appleton too.
Free lunch and breakfast was handed out to kids and parents at three of the district’s schools.
“For families to know that for nine months, when kids are in school, they’re going to have breakfast and lunch and now, for what is going to be, perhaps, the next month, or longer, they can still rely on that,” Hartjes said.
During this time, thousands of kids are out of school, but their parents may still be having to report to work. That presents the issue of how these students will get to the schools to pick-up their lunches.
The Neenah School District has come up with a possible solution to that. Andrew Thorson is assistant business services administrator for the Neenah Joint School District.
“Starting tomorrow, we’re going to put some of our food service workers and some of our educational assistants on the buses, and we’re driving out into the neighborhoods to deliver to a bunch of groups to all the stops in the neighborhoods.”
And Hartjes says buses packed with lunch bags may be riding around in Appleton, too.
“It’s something we will consider but, as this is our first day, we really weren’t sure what the response was going to be. We’ll take a look at what was successful today and what maybe we need to change for future days.”
Appleton’s meal pick-up times and locations can be found here.
Click here for Neenah’s food bus delivery routes.
