Manatee County school officials announced plans for food distribution this week; no word yet from Sarasota County.
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As students in Sarasota and Manatee counties will be home from school for at least the next two weeks, school district leaders in both counties are working on plans to ensure that students who rely on the schools for meals have access to food.
Both districts feed students over the summer, as well as meals at school during the school year, but the ever-evolving nature of the coronavirus pandemic has forced officials to make plans on the fly with schools temporarily closed, and mandates to minimize social gatherings and practice “social distancing” mean that districts need to adjust their typical means of distribution.
Spring break began for both districts last week, coinciding with a directive from the state Department of Education for schools to shut down for at least two weeks due to concerns over the virus.
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As of Monday morning, Sarasota had not issued any official word on food distribution during the unexpected two-week break, but School Board Chairwoman Caroline Zucker said that district officials were working on a plan.
“Since we serve lunch during the summer, it makes sense to me that we have a mechanism in place and just do what we do over the summer,” Zucker said.
Last week, Manatee leaders announced a plan to distribute food during spring break. All children 18 or under, regardless of lunch status, can receive free meals throughout this week at six locations throughout the county.
District spokesman Mike Barber said that distribution would continue as planned this week and that school leaders were working out a plan to continue the free meals next week, when the schools will remain closed due to coronavirus.
“We feed kids all through the summer and spring break, so we do this on a regular basis,” Barber said. “The one thing we would change is during the summer we have kids come in and eat in the cafeterias. It’s possible, we may have bag lunches where you would have a drive-thru and parents could drive through and pick up the lunches.”
In Manatee County, 60% of the district’s 50,103 students qualify for either free or reduced-price lunch, according to the DOE’s 2019-20 numbers. In Sarasota 45% of the district’s 43,498 students qualify.
On Sunday, Florida Commission of Agriculture Nikki Fried activated the SummerBreak website, where families can put in their address and find sites distributing food for free during the closures.
As of Monday morning, the site was advertising 934 active “BreakSpot” sites, with sites in 30 counties, including Manatee, although the tool to find a site nearby was not functioning.
Sarasota was not listed as one of the participating counties, but sites will be added as the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services approves applications.
Zucker said she believed Sarasota officials would be addressing the issue on Wednesday. District spokeswoman Kelsey Whealy said she would provide more information as soon as she had it.
For a complete list of stops, times and menus for Manatee schools’ Spring Break food distribution program, visit https://ift.tt/2QjiJYi.
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