After the 12 pm closing bell and the dust had settled, we served 1,367 meals. “At 11 am, the dinner bell rang and all school locations wheeled food to the curbsides for grab-and-go meal service. That all took place before even one-half day was done. Another eight buses arrived to deliver to the homes of special education students determined to be most in need.” Kenkel said by mid-morning on Monday, “Eight buses from Joplin Schools transportation department arrived at several schools to pick up meals to be delivered into our community at 25 bus stops. This wasn’t easy, because each meal consisted of Monday’s breakfast and lunch, and Tuesday’s breakfast. Kenkel, in detailing how food prep and getting everything delivered came together over the initial few days of this effort, said, “On Monday morning, the Nutrition Services staff arrived and started preparing 2,500 meals and 10 percent extra. By Sunday night, we’d received more than 2,500 requests for meals.”
“After the survey link went out to all our families through district text messaging, Facebook and Twitter, we started receiving requests. They created new grocery orders and organized their staffs to meet the new demands of feeding kids ‘curbside.’ Thursday and Friday of spring break, nutrition services warehousemen pulled groceries and delivered the new menu items to each location.”Īfter that, it was time to get an estimate on the total number of individuals who needed to be served the Monday following spring break, and Kenkel remembered, “We had to create a survey to capture how many meals to produce. “Cafeteria managers from each school were summoned during spring break for a meeting. There were numerous questions that had to be addressed and from there, Kenkel explained, “During spring break, a new menu was created to replace the traditional menu that would have been served (if students had returned to school). “How can we have parents pick up meals at our locations, while avoiding more than 10 students and staff congregating? How can we keep our staff safe and avoid as much personal contact as possible?” Of course, a number of things had to be considered, according to Kenkel, such as, “Would we feed people at all school locations? Could we deliver meals into neighborhoods with families who do not live close to school?
In early March, when COVID-19 began rapidly impacting our nation, Kenkel thought back on how Joplin Schools quickly began brainstorming its strategy and recalled, “The Nutrition Services administrators began to create an emergency meal distribution plan.” “We’re producing close to 30,000 meals per week for families of the Joplin community. We’re providing meals for all seven days of the week. While this is ever-evolving, as of early April, Rick Kenkel, director of child nutrition with Joplin Schools, noted, “Currently, we’re producing 2,100 breakfasts and lunches per day. Joplin Schools is working hard to ensure necessary nourishment to all students and families when they need it most as this continuing coronavirus crisis has forced regular classes to be cancelled through the remainder of this school year.
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