Puyallup expands free meals to 22 schools; Tacoma to deliver meals by bus starting Monday
Tacoma and Puyallup schools district are expanding their free meal programs amid school coronavirus closures.
Starting Monday, Tacoma Public Schools will deliver meals to neighborhoods as part of a “Meals-on-Bus-Wheels” program.
“We’ll have bus drivers going into different neighborhoods,” Tacoma Public Schools Superintendent Carla Santorno said in an interview with City of Tacoma’s CityLine on Thursday.
Families will be able to pick up meals and hard copies of learning packets for students. More information on routes and pickup times is coming. For the latest information, visit tacomaschools.org.
The district started the delivery program after finding some students couldn’t make it to middle school sites for free meals, Santorno said.
Families also can go to any of the 10 middle schools across the district to pick up both lunch and breakfast meals between 10 a.m. and noon. Students do not have to qualify for free and reduced lunch to receive meals.
The district has served 15,336 meals through the program. On Thursday alone, the district provided 5,714 meals for 2,857 kids.
Puyallup expands to all elementary schools
On Monday, Puyallup will relaunch its free meal program, which halted Thursday and Friday amid fears from staff.
Originally, Puyallup provided meals for all students at four elementary schools.
Starting Monday, that will expand to all of Puyallup’s 22 elementary schools.
Families can pick up food between 11 a.m. and 12 p.m.
“As our meal services increased, our social distancing in our kitchen prep areas had to be redesigned,” the district said in a statement on Thursday evening. “We are also creating call lists to be able to backfill staff for vacancies as necessary to allow us to be able to continue service, and we are creating contingency plans in the event of a shelter in place order.”
For the latest information, visit puyallup.k12.wa.us.
This story was originally published March 20, 2020 at 1:20 PM.
