Aiken County Public Schools reached a new milestone Friday, April 3, in the number of lunch and breakfast meals provided for students while schools are closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since March 17, the district has provided 347,502 grab-and-go meals through spring break.
As of April 2, the district and its essential staff necessary to accomplish that mission had provided 272,992 meals to students during the state-mandated school closure, which began March 16, according to the district's website.
The district, with support from Golden Harvest Food Bank, distributed 74,510 meals to students on Friday to help ensure students’ nutritional needs were met this week during spring break, when the district will be closed. More than 7,400 students will have food over the extended break because of Friday’s effort, according to the site.
“Food insecurity is a critical need in our community,” said Sharon Rodgers, the president of the United Way of Aiken County. “After our schools closed due to COVID-19 safeguards, our Aiken County Public School District continued to deliver nutritious meals to our students. When we heard that spring break needed additional coverage, we reached out to our partner agency, Golden Harvest Food Bank, which immediately made over 9,000 supplemental meal packs available.
“This is just one example of how our community always works together to respond to needs. We 'Live United' because 'United We Win.'”
“We are incredibly grateful to the United Way of Aiken County and Golden Harvest Food Bank for stepping in to help,” District Superintendent King Laurence said. “Golden Harvest’s meal bags, 9,660 of them, were transported to eight centralized food distribution schools. Adding to that with what we were able to get from suppliers, we assembled enough food to meet the needs of our students throughout the scheduled spring break recess.”
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