(BLAINE) – The cafeteria at Centennial High School has been empty of students for weeks thanks to Spring Break followed by the state-mandated COVID-19 shutdown. But the kitchen is full of activity on weekdays as all of the hourly nutrition staff workers are busy preparing meals for students who may not have ready access to food at lunch and breakfast time.
“It’s an unprecedented time,” said Centennial Schools Business Services Director Patrick Chaffey. “We just see the need continuing to rise for our districtas more layoffs start to surface. We feel like we’ve gorwn. Last week, we served 300 on our first day. Now, we’re on 675 and we just see as the word gets out more and people are more familiar with the service that’s available, they’ll continue to access it.”
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“Different partners are all going to have to step up,” said Chaffey. “We’ve been using our busing partner (Rehbein) to help go to those remote locations.”
Spring Lake Park Schools are distributing meals on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at all district schools.
Anoka-Hennepin Schools will offer pick-up between 11:00 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. each day at these locations.
“Everybody is kind of being asked to work out of their comfort zone a little bit,” said Chaffey at Centennial High School. “We really do appreciate that.”
