Volunteers have school lunch covered
Published 6:09 am Thursday, April 2, 2020
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Clark County’s public school students are on spring break this week, but they’re still getting their school lunches and breakfasts.
An army of volunteers has been deployed to do what cafeteria workers and bus drivers had been doing — distributing thousands of meals to students at five schools and on two mobile routes.
Thompson’s Catering is preparing the lunches, the Greater Clark Foundation is picking up the check, and members of churches and other volunteers are handing out the food to parents and kids who drive by.
At Robert D. Campbell Junior High School Wednesday, Sarah Bosso and her friend Jessica Henry were handing out sack lunches and grab-and-go breakfast treats.
Sarah said she was contacted by people from her church, Calvary Christian, about volunteering.
“I knew within five minutes of getting that text, I wanted to respond,” she said. “It’s tough and a challenge right now, and we just wanted to help out however we could.”
Joseph Miller, executive director of the Rowland Arts Center, located above The Cairn, coordinated the workforce.
“We had such an overwhelming response from volunteers who wanted to be involved … that within 15 minutes of putting out a call, I was actually putting people on standby,” he said, because they had all the sites covered.
Miller said because the school district had already established the model, organizers were able to put together the effort in about 72 hours.
The Winchester-Clark County Association of Churches helped provide volunteers and purchase breakfast food, the Greater Clark Foundation coordinated the lunch preparation with Thompson’s, and the RAC worked on the organizing the volunteers.
Calvary Christian and Landmark Baptist churches took over the mobile routes, and groups of volunteers showed up every day from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at George Rogers Clark High School, Robert D. Campbell Junior High, Justice Elementary, Shearer Elementary and Clark County Preschool.
“With Mike Thompson coming through and being able to provide the meals and the Greater Clark Foundation as the funding agent, the community has really come together. It’s a beautiful thing to see,” Miller said.