L-EISD is providing lunches to virtual learners this morning

TEXARKANA — Starting at 11 a.m., free grab n’ go lunches will be available for all virtual learners enrolled in the Liberty-Eylau Independent School District.

Pickups for a week’s worth of meals will be on Mondays and Wednesdays every week from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Students must be enrolled at L-EISD to receive meals.

The pickup location will be Liberty-Eylau Middle School.

A Texas Department of Agriculture waiver allows L-EISD to serve lunches to students off campus through Dec. 31.

“We plan to offer meals until then depending on demand,” said Matt Fry, director of communications. “If TDA provides an extension, we will look at that then.”

The district already feeds students daily through the National School Lunch program, but the TDA waiver allows them to include remote learners as well.

“The meals will follow the school lunch menu,” Fry said. “Students will receive enough for the extra days including both prepackaged and heat and serve meals. This is similar to what we did during the summer.”

Fry said making sure students aren’t missing any meals is a priority for the district, as it has been, including at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“When school closed on March 16, we formed a plan and delivered meals on March 17,” he said. “We understand that access to a good meal helps students focus and learn better. We also understand that one of the challenges many families face is the ability to feed their children. We never want hunger to be a hindrance to a child’s ability to learn. While we do not have the staff to execute a delivery program like we did in the summer, this program does allow us to serve meals to all of our students.”