Kate Bradshaw

_{Norma Lazcano places potatoes in a bag at a food pick-up site at the Los Robles Ronald McNair Academy in East Palo Alto on May 19. When the pandemic forced school campuses to close, child nutrition staff had to adapt quickly to make sure families didn’t lose access to the school meals that they rely on. Photo by Magali Gauthier.}

The pandemic challenged child nutrition leaders to rethink strategies for getting school meals to those in need

By Kate Bradshaw

June 1, 2021

Every Wednesday in East Palo Alto, between the hours of 8 a.m. and 2 p.m., parents in vehicles pull over on Pulgas Avenue near the Los Robles-Ronald McNair school campus to pick up a week’s worth of food for their families.

On a recent Wednesday, Consuelo Meza and Maria Gonzalez, two student nutrition staffers from the Ravenswood City School District, cheerfully offered food to everyone who showed up, loading bags of milk, juice, meatballs, mini pancakes, raisins, apples, macaroni noodles, cheese sticks and carrots, handing them off into vehicles or leaving visitors to tie the bags onto their bicycle handlebars before riding off.

Each week, their team distributes between 140 and 150 bags of food at that location, Meza said. Conversations with those picking up food indicated that the program was helping them. Marta Andulo of East Palo Alto said in Spanish that she’s experienced stress after losing work at a restaurant when it closed, and was picking up the food to help out a grandchild.

Kenneth Pope of Menlo Park said that the pandemic has been hard, but that “it brought the family closer together.” The meal program has helped feed his four grandchildren, he added.

Through major efforts to feed children during the pandemic, school districts across San Mateo and Santa Clara counties have offered an important resource to families struggling with unprecedented changes and challenges.

Interviews with school district leaders involved in providing school meals tell a story about widespread and herculean efforts to help families impacted by the pandemic’s seismic economic shifts.

Read more at almanacnews.com.