Since Monday, school districts in Columbus and Starkville, along with a Starkville grocer, have provided more than 3,500 meals to home-bound kids.

That number, school officials from both the Columbus Municipal School District and the Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District said, is almost certain to increase, perhaps exponentially as the full weight of the COVID-19 arrives. Students in both districts are out of school because of the pandemic, and districts are considering extending the break for another week.

“I could see the number of meals we provide double by the end of the week,” said CMSD Superintendent of Schools Cherie Labat, whose district has distributed almost 2,000 meals since Monday.

“We served 1,200 meals (Tuesday), our first day,” said Jenny Hill, nutritionist for SOCSD. “It could easily get to 2,500.”

Both school programs will feed children 18 and under regardless of whether they are district students.

Vowell’s Marketplace in Starkville, which began providing sack breakfast and lunches to anyone under age 18 on Monday, said the store has distributed almost all of the 100 breakfasts and 200 lunches over the two days.

“This is something we are happy to do,” Vowell’s store manager Max Stillman said. “Monday, we gave out 61 breakfasts. (Tuesday) we gave out all 100 we had prepared. It looks like the demand is only going to go up.”

CMSD

Labat said she has been working with school personnel since March 10 putting the feeding program together.

Breakfasts are available from 7-9 a.m. at each of the schools, with lunches being distributed from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. The meals are available for pick-up only.

CMSD is also delivering 100 meals each day to five Columbus Housing Authority complexes, Labat said.

After a slow start Monday, when just 43 meals were distributed at school campuses, 908 meals were picked up at the schools Tuesday. Another 1,000 meals were distributed through the deliveries to CHA housing developments over two days.

Labat said the program at each school is staffed by the school principal, one security officer and all eight food service workers, who will be granted personal days for the work they perform as long as the program is in place.

“Our employees have been very, very positive and worked extremely hard to prepare this program and get it in operation,” Labat said. “They’ve all really stepped up to the plate.”

Labat said her main concern is whether demand will eventually outstrip the district’s supply.

“Some institutions have already started laying off employees,” Labat said. “As more and more people are laid off, these meals are going to be all the more important. Having access to two meals a day means parents can use the resources they have on other needs. When you don’t know where your next paycheck is coming from, these meals are vital. The demand is only going to increase.”

In addition to the meals, parents can also pick up informational packets on the district’s educational plans during the period when schools are closed, Labat said.

SOCSD

SOCSD kicked off its meal program on Tuesday, providing about 1,200 meals. Unlike CMSD, the program includes both breakfast and lunch in one bag.

In Starkville, a “grab-and-go” meal program is available at Sudduth and Henderson Ward Stewart elementary schools and Starkville High School. Hill said a combined 200 meal packages were distributed at the three sites Tuesday.

By far, though, the most successful means of distributing the meals has been through delivery.

Meal bags are put together at Armstrong Middle School and loaded on school buses, which combined run all 20 of the district’s regular routes.

On Tuesday, the district delivered 1,000 meals through the bus routes.

“The rollout has been great, especially with the bus routes,” Hill said. “The drivers stop at each place where they normally pick up children and we have an administrator on each bus that actually hands out the meals.”

Hill said each child must come out to the bus to receive the meals.

“What we found is that a lot of the students didn’t know about the program, so they didn’t come out,” she said. “Some may not have been at home. As word gets out we expect that more and more kids will be coming out for the meals when they see the bus coming. Between the ‘grab and go’ and bus deliveries, we could easily see the number of meals get to 2,500.”

Vowell’s

Stillman said he received word about the plan to provide lunches on Friday.

“Our owners, Todd and Gil Vowell, got together and decided with what was going on with the students being out of school, that they wanted to help,” Stillman said. “They put this together themselves and sent it out to us Friday. So far the response has been outstanding.”

Stillman said the meal program is available at all 19 of the Vowell family’s stores in Mississippi and Alabama.

“Our deli workers start putting the sack lunches together around 5:30 or 6 in the morning and put them in the cooler until the kids come to pick them up,” Stillman said.

Stillman said the store has been putting together 100 breakfasts and 300 lunches each day. Meals are provided for anyone under age 18 who is accompanied by a parent or guardian.

“Vowell’s is a family owned business, so we’ve been involved in a lot of community programs over the years,” Stillman said. “But as far as I know, this is a first. It’s obvious there was a need, so we are happy to be able to do this for our communities.”

Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].

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