PFLUGERVILLE, Texas — Pflugerville Independent School District leaders are urging families to use their curbside meal pickup services after seeing the number of families coming every day dropped since this summer.
During a normal school year, the district served 25,000 meals per day at 31 campuses, according to Shelby Kelly, the marketing and communications manager. When the coronavirus hit, summer participation in the curbside program was still high. But when the school year started, those numbers dipped significantly.
The district now only gives out approximately 1,000 meals a day across 10 campuses, Kelly added.
"It could be a variable of reasons, and we want to make sure we are doing our part communicating out to families that we are here. Breakfast is free, come on out. Of course, lunch is based on status such as free, reduced or paid," she said.
Charlotte Nelson drives to school every morning to grab her children's lunches.
RELATED:
"It's kind of keeping routine in a way. At school, they would have it and it just makes them feel better," she said.
Between work, chores and getting her children signed in online, she said it also is one less thing she has to do. However, for some parents, the time frame to get food and get them signed on may be limiting. KVUE asked Nelson how she deals with it.
"We are actually in class in the car. I just have my WiFi on, he's taking a class in the back. We just make our rounds to the daycare and stop by the school," she said.
Meals are served Monday through Friday, from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. or 11 a.m. to noon. Both meals can be picked up at one time.
For those individuals with transportation limitations, Kelly said it does not have to be the child's parent picking up the meal. As long as the individual picking up has the proper information for the school, mainly the student's ID number, they can pick up the lunches.
"We have seen a lot of neighbors and family members grabbing meals for multiple children," she said.
Families can pick up meals at any of the 10 locations available. It does not matter what school the student attends.
Cafeteria staff utilizes extensive social distancing and sanitary measures during the curbside pickup process. Some of those include:
- Meals are single-packaged
- Staff wear gloves and masks
- The food is placed on carts that are pushed six feet away from the cars. Once staff steps back, someone from the car steps out grabs the bags and gets back in their car.
For more information on the district's curbside meal program, visit their website.
PEOPLE ARE ALSO READING: