Whitley County School District changing student food delivery to Monday, Wednesday, Friday

The Whitley County School District is changing how often it is delivering food to students, who are out of class due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In our district, we have been fortunate to be able to continue to provide meals for our students using delivery by our buses. (We) want to continue this service for as long as it is deemed safe to do so. We are looking at the process and trying to make it as safe for our employees as we possibly can,” school officials said in a post on the school district’s Facebook page.

The district had been delivering food Monday – Friday to every bus stop in the district, but starting Wednesday, March 25, changed the delivery schedule to Monday, Wednesday and Friday only.

“Each of those days, students will get enough food to last for two days. This is being done to limit person to person contact as much as we can and still provide the service. It will also allow us to provide an extra meal for Saturday,” school officials said in the post.

In addition, the school district will also be doing grab and go meals at Whitley Central Intermediate School, which is located off US25W near Exit 15 on the main campus, and at other elementary schools in the district. Those meals can be picked up from 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

The risk of employees being exposed to the virus while delivering food is real.

On Thursday, Fayette County Public Schools (FCPS) discontinued meal delivery to bus stops throughout the Lexington community while schools are closed during the pandemic after learning Wednesday evening that a member of transportation department, who was involved in meal service, tested positive for COVID-19.

Although Lexington-Fayette County health officials think the risk of exposure to other staff and the children served is low, FCPS believes the safest course of action is to close the bus stop program, the district said in the release.

Now the meals are only available at pick-up locations at various schools.

The Whitley County School District was already scheduled off the week of April 6 for spring break prior to the outbreak of the pandemic.

There will be no Non-Traditional Instruction (NTI) assignments for that week, and the school district won’t be delivering food that week.

Superintendent John Siler said Friday that local churches would be providing food for students that week though.