‘Everybody has to eat.’ Fresno schools aim to keep students, families fed during crisis

The hallways of Roosevelt High School were empty and quiet Monday as students and teachers stayed home to help slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.

But one group of school employees reported to work almost as usual — cafeteria workers.

“It’s frightening, but we have to do what we have to do,” said Alma Fernandez, the Roosevelt High School Food Service manager assistant.

While the nation grapples with COVID-19 and many Fresnans remain self-quarantined, cafeteria workers are coming out to ensure students around Fresno County are fed.

“We don’t want students to be scared of what’s going on,” Fernandez said. She said it was important for students to continue to take precautions such as washing their hands and covering their mouths when they cough.

Students who rely on school lunch and breakfast can still get a meal even in the midst of a major public health emergency. “We don’t want them to say ‘because we can’t go to school, we can’t eat,’” Fernandez said.

About 65% of students in Fresno County qualify for free or reduced lunch, according to the latest Children Now 2018-2019 county score card. And at least 2 million children are affected by food insecurity in California, according to the 2020 report.

Monday was the first day of class cancellations for California schools across the state including Fresno Unified, Central Unified and Clovis Unified. Both Central and Fresno began offering free breakfast and lunch to children under 18 on Monday. Clovis will begin offering its free food program on Tuesday. Visalia schools will be offering grab-n-go meals program at certain sites starting Wednesday. Selma Unified schools will begin offering bag lunches on Tuesday between the hours of 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

High food insecurity in Central

Central Unified is offering free breakfast and lunch between the hours of 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. On Monday the schools at Central Unified served meals to over 1,000 students. In order to ensure the safety of staff and students, all meals were served outside of the schools cafeterias.

Sonja Dosti, Cheif Communications officer for Central Unified, said it’s important for Central to provide meals because there is over “70% food insecurity” in their district.

Fresno Unified providing meals for families

At a news conference on Monday afternoon FUSD Superintendent Bob Nelson announced the details of the free meal program. Nelson said children can pick up as many meals as necessary for their families. Picking up multiple meals at a time will help ensure lower numbers of groups and also help feed entire families. Fresno Unified serves 74,000 students.

Originally these free meals were only for students under the age of 18, but given the current circumstances, Nelson said students are allowed to pick up meals for their families. “We are in a different place and the situation is very fluid,” he said.

Some schools used unique methods in order to avoid large crowds: Greenberg Elementary and Susan B. Anthony Elementary provided drive-through pick-up for students receiving meals.

Fresno Unified is having all schools offer breakfast and lunch, and will continue to do so on Tuesday. Superintendent Nelson said by Wednesday the district will be tracking patterns in order to “consolidate” which sites will provide meals. During that time Fresno Unified will also provide explicit times.

Nelson said the safety of staff is the priority, which is why the district has stripped down staff to only the most crucial. “We love and appreciate you. Stay safe.”

Main offices are closed and the district is limiting all engagement to only the most crucial staff including: payroll functions, bill paying functions, staffing functions and food service.

‘Everyone has to eat’

Breakfast hours are usually 7:15 to 7:40 a.m., however on the first day of free meals cafeteria workers at Roosevelt high decided to extend hours to 8:30 a.m. in order to give students more time. “I know people are not sure if we’re open or not,” Fernandez said.

Only seven children showed up for breakfast at Roosevelt on Monday morning. But for Fernandez, a veteran cafeteria worker who has worked during summer hours and during winter break, low-turn out for meal pick-up is common at the beginning of break sessions.

“I think it’s like summer school. People at first don’t come in and then they see it’s open and they slowly start coming. We might see at one point multiple people coming in. I work summer and school and I work winter break and they start out with two or three people but at the end of the day I get like 80 people.”

After students grab their meals, the custodial staff comes in and sanitizes the serving area.

Sanitary measures are being taken seriously at the schools as well. Students do not touch the food. Fernandez says students are allowed into the cafeteria in small groups, but for the moment since numbers are so low they come in one at a time. In order to get food, students enter through one side of the building and exit through the other.

Fernandez says Roosevelt has enough the capacity to feed about 350 people.

“I’m a parent. And I know most of the kids at home there is nobody to cook for them, so it’s a good idea to give them breakfast and lunch,” Fernandez said. “Everybody has to eat.”

This story was originally published March 16, 2020 at 7:26 PM with the headline "‘Everybody has to eat.’ Fresno schools aim to keep students, families fed during crisis."