Washington County Enterprise-Leader

Lincoln School Continues Meal Deliveries

- By Lynn Kutter

LINCOLN — Employees with Lincoln Consolidat­ed School District, Aramark employees, bus drivers and volunteers have kept busy this summer continuing to provide two meals a day, seven days a week for Lincoln students at home on summer break.

From March 17 through July 6, the school had delivered 161,852 meals to an average of 1,600, according to Lesa Owens with Aramark. She said staff has included 17 kitchen workers, seven student workers who are packing breakfast meals and loading and unloading meals onto buses and about 8-10 volunteers.

Valerie Dawson, food service director for Lincoln schools, said meal deliveries will continue through July 29. On July 29, kids will receive meals for July 30, July 31, Aug. 1 and Aug. 2.

Dawson said staff will then spend two weeks getting all the kitchens back in order to be ready to start school and train any new staff on new protocols that fall under covid-19 guidelines issued by the Arkansas Department of Health. Lincoln is delivering meals by bus. On Mondays, staff are delivering breakfast and lunch for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. On Thursday, staff are delivering breakfast and lunch for Thursday-Sunday.

The school has some drop- off sites for meals: Cincinnati Fire Department, the high school and elementary school. A stop also is made at Summers Baptist Church for a short time to see if anyone is there, Owens said.

The school is using about nine bus routes to deliver meals to any children 18 and under in the home, Owens added.

Now that some athletes are on campus for workouts, staff are delivering a breakfast and lunch to provide meals for those students.

Both Dawson and Owens said the district is working on its meal plans for the new year.

“We have a couple of plans to ensure all kids get meals,” Owens said.

For students taking on-site classes, the district will have to follow the same guidelines issued for restaurant­s, which allows a two-thirds seating capacity and physical distancing.

Dawson said elementary students will be served in their classrooms. The school is still working on how meals will be served for middle school and high school buildings.

For virtual students, there will be a parent pickup for meals or if it’s feasible, school staff will deliver food to the students.

Another new program will be an after school dinner program for all students. This will start Aug. 24 and will be a pickup service for parents. Most likely, the middle school cafeteria will be used as the pickup for those meals and possibly a second location, Dawson said.

 ?? COURTESY PHOTO ?? Right: Anna Gonzalez and Lorene Jewett make meals for Lincoln students home for the summer. Left: Abby
Goldman and Michael Brown put together meals Aramark employees, school employees, bus drivers and volunteers have worked together to meet the hunger needs of their students.
COURTESY PHOTO Right: Anna Gonzalez and Lorene Jewett make meals for Lincoln students home for the summer. Left: Abby Goldman and Michael Brown put together meals Aramark employees, school employees, bus drivers and volunteers have worked together to meet the hunger needs of their students.
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