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The lunchroom ladies at Kenbridge Elementary School were scheduled to serve spaghetti with corn, California blend fruit, Texas toast and milk before the coronavirus pandemic closed schools for at least two weeks. Instead, they stood at the back door of the cafeteria Thursday, March 19 handing out bags of food to families in need.

The program is an effort to make sure Lunenburg County children receive nutritious meals while they are out of school as a precaution against the spread of the virus. Meals can be picked up at Kenbridge Elementary School and Central High School Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

So far Thursday, the group at Kenbridge Elementary had given out 58 meals with an hour still to go. They said they distributed 105 of the meals Tuesday.

The bagged meals are given to children ages 2 to 18.

The bags contain two meals – a lunch and a breakfast. Thursday’s bag had cereal, two milks, a juice carton along with a pizza, apple and an orange.

“You get lunch and breakfast the same day,” Adrienne Moore said. Cindy Clark, cafeteria manager at Victoria Elementary, was also on hand to help with the process.

She said the items were things the cafeteria already had on hand. They were able to put the meals together to make sure children out of school who need food had an opportunity to stay nourished. Similar programs are going on in  surrounding counties.

June Johnson and Melvin Woodley, two maintenance workers at the school, were on hand helping out as well. They said they are spending their time cleaning and sanitizing the school while the children are away.