Disney World donates food

Local school districts, pantries scramble to keep up with demand

The unprecedented closing of all Walt Disney World theme parks has had one upside: a massive donation to Second Harvest Food Bank on Monday.

The truckloads of food — enough for more than 18,000 meals — comes as local school districts, soup kitchens and food pantries scramble to keep people fed in the wake of widespread shutdowns to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Schools in Seminole, Lake and Osceola have announced plans to keep feeding students who rely on free and reduced-price school meals by providing drive-through sites at designated campuses. Officials at Orange County Public Schools have said they are finalizing plans to do so as well.

Meanwhile, the perishable food from Disney, prepared for theme park restaurants, is being distributed by Second Harvest to help some 60 homeless and domestic-violence shelters and soup kitchens in six Central Florida counties: Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Lake, Brevard and Volusia.

“We’re getting pans of cooked meat, lots of bags of chopped vegetables, baked goods,” said Greg Higgerson, Second Harvest’s chief development officer. “It’s coming at a pretty crucial time.”

That’s because the grocery chains and retailers that typically donate excess food don’t have much to give at the moment. With shoppers everywhere stocking up on food and supplies for a potential quarantine, retail donations to the food bank have been cut in half.

Walt Disney World Resort has said it will keep its parks closed through the end of the month.

Also on Monday, the Osceola and Lake school districts announced they would provide free student meals to be picked up and eaten off campus during the extended spring break, March 23 through March 27.

In Osceola, the district’s School Nutrition Services Department will provide free breakfasts and lunches to all children 18 years and under at a dozen sites throughout the county. Meals will be available for pickup daily between 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. at each location, and families can go to the site nearest them, even if their children do not attend that school. Students must accompany the parent or adult during the pickup, but meals can be provided to children not of school age if they are present.

The Osceola sites include:

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2015

Cloud

■

5th St. in St. Cloud

■ 275 Waters Edge Dr. in Kissimmee

■ 2001 Denn John Lane in Kissimmee

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500 W. Columbia Ave. in Kissimmee

■ 420 S. Thacker Ave. in Kissimmee

■

Blvd. in Kissimmee

■ 1925 Ham Brown Rd. in Poinciana

■ 5000 KOA St. in Poinciana

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Marigold Ave. in Poinciana

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Westside Blvd. in Kissimmee

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S. Michigan

Ave.

in

St.

2900

2410 Dyer

3701

2551

4451 Cameron

Circle in Kissimmee

Lake County Schools also announced Monday that they will provide free breakfast and lunch meals for students 18 and younger from March 23 through March 27. Meals will be available for pickup between 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. in the car loop of each school site.

As in other counties, the meals will be passed out directly to people in their vehicles or will hand out meals to walkers and cyclists. Either way, the student must be present, but parents are not required be there. The food distribution sites include:

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1108 W. Griffin Road in Leesburg

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250 W. Atwater Ave. in Eustis

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Parkwood St. in Groveland

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13636 Education Ave. in Minneola

■ 1901 Johns Lake Road in Clermont

Preserve

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