All K-12 Schools in Michigan are closed Monday. It’s the first day in an extended closure meant to slow the spread of COVID-19 outbreaks.
For some Michigan kids, the meals they get at school are the only guaranteed food they get in a day. During the closure, the state has told districts to go to a model that resembles summer feeding programs.
In Bridgman, a team of food service workers and other school employees gathered on Sunday to get meals out to kids. Several of them spent their Saturday packing up all the meals too.
One of them is my mom, Robin Weingart, she’s a lunch lady at Bridgman’s middle school. She showed me the 2,400 meals inside the freezer and cooler at the High School.
“And this is the cooler portion. And that is also 400 of the cooler things, you know, the fresh fruit, things that couldn’t be frozen. So we packed it separately so everyone gets a plastic bag and a paper bag and six drinks.”
Food Service director Peggy Ferguson explains the meals are similar to the ones they hand out in the summer.
“So we have 184 students that are on the free and reduced program but this is open to everybody. This is like summer feeding. So anyone under 18 and then anyone who has a disability the age can go up to 26.”
But Ferguson said it’s a little different for pandemic food. They want to limit the number of exposures so they’re only handing out food twice a week. And the state has simplified it so she only has to fill out one form to track the food and get reimbursed.
“We’re allowed to do two meals a day so we’re doing breakfast and lunch. And then to save parents the trouble of coming back and forth every day we’re giving them meal kits for three days. Wednesday we’ll give them four days worth of meals.”
All those meals were packed up and sent to three locations. Some stay at the High School and are handed out in front. Some go to the city’s library.
And enough meals for 150 kids for three days are loaded on bus number eight with a team of a driver Bethany Cawley, the district superintendent, Shane Peters, the business supervisor Heather McIntyre and her husband, Dave McIntyre the transportation supervisor. These meals will go to Warren Dunes Estates, the mobile home park south of town.
People who live in the park walk or drive up to the bus parked in front of the office and tell the workers how many kids they need to feed.
Jennifer Morgan picked up food for her 10 year old son. She said he’ll be at a babysitters all day with school closed, and the food helps.
“Normally he gets a snack at school, he gets breakfast, he gets lunch. Hey, that’s great. Well now he’s gonna continue to get it so really nothing’s changing for him.”
Overall, Bridgman ended up handing out nearly all of the 400 meals they packed. And they’ll be ready on Wednesday to do it all over again. Twice a week, every week as long as schools are closed.
