City takes added lunch duty after HISD cancels food drop
Twenty minutes passed without a family picking up a meal Thursday afternoon until Veronica Lopez pulled into the Moody Community Center parking in an old black minivan, her four children in tow.
With a temporary layoff notice fresh in her mind and anxiety about the novel coronavirus running high, Lopez lowered her front passenger window to receive four kids’ lunches and snacks from city of Houston employees.
“We’re really running low at home, and I’d rather get food from a place like this than risk it going to the store,” said Lopez, who lives on the city’s north side and had worked as a seasonal barback at a downtown Houston hotel. “I have three packs of eggs at home, and I’m already thinking about whether I’m going to make it through a month with them.”
Parents and relatives seeking children’s meals arrived in a trickle Thursday at several of the city’s 50 community centers, which now take on greater importance after Houston ISD announced late Wednesday it was suspending food distribution at its campuses indefinitely.
City officials said they still were counting the number of meals distributed Thursday, but the sparse crowds witnessed at six centers visited by Houston Chronicle staff members suggest HISD’s abrupt cancellation could leave more families hungry amid the stillyoung pandemic. Prior to the suspension, HISD and the Houston Food Bank were providing a few thousand families with about 30 pounds of food each weekday.
City leaders said they planned to provide up to 50 meals to each site, with the option of increasing to 200 meals based on demand.
“We anticipate that all sites will have an increased need for meal supply, but until we receive a final count of distribution, we can’t provide that information at this time,” said Rummeka Allen, the Houston Parks and Recreation Department’s administrative coordinator for after-school and summer food service programs, in a statement.
None of the half-dozen community centers visited by Chronicle staffers — including those in the Greater East End, Near Northside and Third Ward neighborhoods — received a steady stream of vehicles Thursday.
By contrast, several schools visited in the past two weeks have had lines or consistent visitors — though districts are offering significantly fewer pickup points.
HISD officials announced late Wednesday that they were nixing all future food distribution dates after an individual present at Welch Middle School’s delivery site later self-quarantined due to possible COVID-19 exposure. HISD officials initially said the individual was present on Wednesday, but later clarified the person was at Welch on Tuesday.
The individual had not tested positive for the novel coronavirus as of Thursday afternoon, HISD officials said. Volunteers and staff working at Welch have been notified and asked to self-quarantine for 14 days, while those who received food “should not be at increased risk” due to social distancing measures put in place, district officials said.
Laura Jones, the director of operations of Launch Point Community Development Center, said her northeast Houston nonprofit is bracing for increased food demand after HISD and other organizations shuttered their distribution sites in recent days. The organization typically employs about a dozen staff members on food pickup days, serving about 400 families, but Jones said she expects to need about 20 to 30 additional volunteers for Friday’s distribution.
“Because pantries are closing, we’re seeing people from as far as Cypress, Humble, The Woodlands,” Jones said. “It’s the end of the month, food stamps are running out and food supply is running low because people didn’t prepare for this.”
In announcing the end of school-based delivery, HISD officials directed families to the city of Houston’s community centers and pantries supported by the Houston Food Bank.
Houston Food Bank officials did not respond to a request for comment on their plans Thursday.
Traci Cheremoshnyuk, the third arrival Thursday at Sunnyside Community Center, said her family already is rationing food received from five trips to HISD distribution sites over the past two weeks. Lunch boxes filled with a sandwich, apple slices and chips temporarily satisfied her two sons — 8-year-old A.J. and 4-year-old Nikolai — but she worries about the coming days and weeks.
“Hopefully, giving them another week to figure it out will probably help them,” Cheremoshnyuk said of HISD officials.
HISD leaders said the food service cancellations will remain in place while the district “re-evaluates its process to determine the safest way to provide the service.”
Many districts across the Greater Houston area, including several that border HISD, continue to provide curbside meals to all children younger than 18 years old, regardless of where they attend school.