Wilton and Durant schools offer free meals to area children

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The Wilton and Durant communities are pulling together to help families in need during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many children rely on school breakfasts and lunches to eat, but with school being closed — meals sometimes can be sparse for some local children.

Families who need help during this pandemic because of finances, having no adults home due to essential work, or anything in between, can receive free breakfasts and lunches for pick up or delivery at both Wilton and Durant elementary schools. Any child from the age of 1 to 18 qualifies for this free food program.

Requests must be made to pick up breakfasts, lunches or both at any time while this free program is running. What follows is information pertaining to both schools:

Wilton

Monday, March 30 the free breakfast and lunch program started at Wilton schools. More than 200 bags were given away full of breakfast and lunch items. With many parents still working, the lunches provided will all be microwavable — no oven use needed. Breakfast options could include: juice, cereal, bagels, pancakes, yogurt, string cheese, etc. Lunch options could include: grilled chicken, mac ‘n cheese, tenderloins, corn dogs, fruits, vegetables, etc.

Pick up days are Mondays and Wednesday from 11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. at the Wilton Elementary drop off lane. On Mondays, each child can get two days worth of breakfasts and lunches. For Wednesday pick up, each child can get two days of breakfasts and three days of lunches.

Four food service employees or para-educators can be seen organizing cars and handing out lunches during those two pickup days. Cars will pull up to the first employee, who takes names and a count of breakfast and lunch sacks. Then the car will pull forward to receive the food bags. All school employees wear gloves and are provided with masks.

Delivery is also available for those families who do not have a way to get to the school or if the parents are working during the day. A small school bus is driven around with the free breakfast and lunch bags. When stopping at houses, the driver honks the horn three times to practice social distancing and to notify the families their food is on their front step or porch.

To take part in the program, please contact Nutrition Director Terri Denkman at 563-506-1396 or email her at terridenkman@wiltoncsd.org. Any child age one to 18 is eligible to receive free breakfasts and lunches. Children do not need to be on the free and reduced school program to receive food. This free food program will run until the Wilton Community School District begins school or until the last day of the school year in May.

Durant

Monday, March 30 also marked the first day the Durant schools offered free breakfast and lunch bags to ANY child under the age of 18 years old. A total of 150 lunches and breakfasts were served on the first day of the program. A survey was sent out to the entire district notifying all families of the free food program. To reserve free breakfast or lunch, please fill out that survey or you can simply stop by the Durant Elementary School at the drop off/pick up alley on the south side of the school.

Cars drive up to the first food service employee to tell them their children’s names and how many breakfast and lunch bags are needed. Other workers gather the appropriate number of sacks and wheel them on a cart to the car door. The driver picks up sacks off the cart to practice social distancing and no contact.

Pick up times are Mondays and Wednesdays from 11 a.m. – noon. Monday pick up, families will receive two breakfast sacks and two lunch sacks. Wednesdays, families will receive three breakfast sacks and three lunch sacks. For a list of menu items, families can visit Durant.nutrislice.com/menu.

For families with parents that are still working throughout the day, Durant will deliver the sack lunches and breakfasts. A school vehicle will bring the meals to the door and leave them on the doorstep. There is no contact and a social distance of six feet is maintained.

To order meals, parents can email Nutrition Director Tessa Dierickx at tessa.dierickx@durant.k12.ia.us or call 563-785-4433 ext. 1232 to sign up. Those in need can sign up for this free meal program at any time during the COVID-19 pandemic. No end date is set for the Durant food program at this time.

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