Three St. Landry Parish schools will prepare and distribute lunches for students while schools are closed because of the coronavirus outbreak, according to school officials. They are asking for volunteers to help with the distribution.
Gov. John Bel Edwards signed a proclamation Friday that closes all K-12 public schools statewide and immediately halts any gathering of more than 250 people until April 13.
Central Middle in Eunice, Opelousas Junior High School, and Lawtell Elementary School will serve lunches between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. each weekday.
The distribution started Monday, according to school nutrition director Helen Robinson.
In Port Barre, a non-profit organization, 3 O’Clock Project, in conjunction with the St. Landry Parish School Board, will distribute lunches at the Knights of Columbus Hall on Saizan Street.
Any student in the parish in need of lunches may pick up a meal at these locations during these times. The student must be present. Lunches will be brought out to the cars.
Volunteers who want to help distribute the meals should sign up at https://volunteersignup.org/4AXLE.
School and government officials are working on other options to make the meals more easily accessible. Those will be announced as soon as they are finalized.
Parents are urged to watch local media and to check regularly for updates with the school board website, https://www.slpsb.org/ and its Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/stlandryparishschoolboard/.
EUNICE - Three St. Landry Parish schools will prepare and distribute lunches for students while schools are closed because of the coronavirus outbreak, according to school officials. They are asking for volunteers to help with the distribution.
On Monday at 11 a.m. at Central Middle School cafeteria, cafeteria workers and volunteers were steadily preparing school lunches, milk and juice. There were 150 plates prepared. Cheryl Stevens, cafeteria manager, said, “We will have some extra if needed.”
Students, 18 and under, are eligible to receive a free lunch. The student is required to be inside the vehicle with a parent or guardian during lunch pick up. A volunteer or cafeteria worker will meet the driver at the car window.
Parents will be given a numbered slip of paper, handed out to them by a volunteer. A cafeteria worker or volunteer will hand out the prepared school plate lunches.
The anticipated, and suggested route for parents to take to receive a plate lunch is to first drive in front of the middle school. In front of the school, one will receive a numbered ticket. Then the driver is suggested to drive onto the north end of the campus onto Fern Avenue, which runs alongside the school and Coutee’s Grocery. Volunteers will have school lunches ready for pick up there. All lunches are handed to the driver of the vehicle.
Preparing the meals Monday were Central Middle’s cafeteria workers, Cheryl Steven, cafeteria manager; Bertha Andrus, Isabelle Green, Linda Thomas, Claire Breaux, and Karen Shambough. Some of the volunteers on Monday were Melissa Bergeron, Lauren Brown, Leslie DesHotels, and Fran Lemelle.
Monday’s luncheon for students consisted of chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, a salad, a bread roll, milk and juice.