School districts feed low-income youth amid the uncertainty of schooling due to a global pandemic.
The Murphy School District in Phoenix, like many others, establishes a car food court on Monday Friday for breakfast and lunch. The district has nine locations, 3 in schools and six other cell sites where students can have a loose breakfast or lunch, and adults can purchase a meal for $2.
“Our families want it. They come here every day,” said Erika Mancilla, deputy principal of William R Sullivan Elementary School. “They’re counting on this about us. It really has an impact.”
William R Sullivan Elementary School supplies 150 to two hundred foods a day for its students and their families. The Murphy School District is one of 21 Arizona districts, with at least 80% of students eligible for free discounted food.
“My husband doesn’t have much work, so he’s helping to feed the children,” said Juana Martinez, a relative of the district.
“Honestly, it’s very complicated. Array… wondering what you could feed them. But thank God we still have our daily bread,” said another father.
Meals are backed up through the national school meal program and will continue even if classroom education is delayed or if Gov. Doug Ducey makes the decision to cancel school altogether.
The districts themselves survey district families to determine who is entitled to loose or reduced-price meals, and then the federal government reimburses schools for the number of students fed.
“So you can make sure that at the beginning of the school year,” I know that I have, for example, 400 academics who are eligible. We want to make sure we buy enough food for 400 breakfasts and 400 children’s lunches for that amount. school days, ” said Marisol Garcia. Vice President of the Arizona Education Association.” [It aims to help, especially academics in poverty, have the nutrition they want to excel in school.”
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