Coronavirus: LSC begins free meal drive-thru, schools prepare for closures through May 1

LAFAYETTE – Thursday morning, a steady stream of cars filled the parking lots of Sunnyside Intermediate and Tecumseh Junior High schools.

As the cars drove closer to the school buildings, windows were rolled down and a gloved volunteer handed over a few bags to the passengers, thanking them and wishing them to stay safe and healthy.

Thursday was the start of a free breakfast and lunch drive-thru distribution at the two schools, part of Lafayette School Corp. As thousands of children around Tippecanoe County are out of school until at least May 1 — following an order from Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb on Thursday — to help curb the spread of coronavirus, one question keeps popping up: How will LSC, which has 68 percent of its 8,000 students on free or reduced-price meals this school year, feed its children?

The free and reduced-price meals program is federally mandated, so while LSC was working on a waiver, private companies and organizations around Greater Lafayette stepped up to fill the community need.

The first response began Thursday, when United Way of Greater Lafayette — along with Community Foundation of Greater Lafayette, IU Health, Food Finders, Security Federal, SIA and Wabash National Corp. — teamed up to donate and distribute food to any child in LSC.

Beginning at 11 a.m., Monday through Friday until March 27, food trucks will be stationed to hand out prepackaged breakfast and lunches to LSC families.

“We’re offering it to everyone, and that’s the importance,” Stephanie Hanslow, director of resource development at United Way, said. “Kids who would usually come to school for free meals now don’t have school available to them, so we’re just trying to fill that need.”

The effort is led by United Way and volunteers at both locations who direct traffic, move food stored in the truck and distribute breakfast and lunch in bags directly to people waiting in their cars.

Each location had packed breakfasts and lunches, which were handed out at the same time. There were enough for about 500 students.

One of the volunteers helping direct cars to Sunnyside was Traci Wright, an administrator with the city of Lafayette. Wright celebrated her 19th anniversary working for the city as she motioned to cars where to go and counted the number of people coming through.

“They needed help, so here I am,” Wright said.

LSC is setting up a similar program to start Friday with meal pickup locations from the student drop-off areas at Glen Acres Elementary and Miller Elementary from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., given out in a similar drive-thru style. The school district also will take over the meal distributions at Sunnyside and Tecumseh after March 27.

Parents were also alerted via text message from LSC of the meal pickups available, said Mark Withers, a resource development associate at United Way who was leading the Tecumseh meal distribution.

“This effort means that people are supported, that they’re not forgotten and they’re not on their own,” Withers said. “As a community, we’re responsible for taking care of each other, and that’s certainly true now.”

Lunches in Tippecanoe School Corp.

Tippecanoe School Corp. is starting a similar distribution program March 23, providing free, grab-and-go meals to all TSC students at no cost. 

The meals will be delivered through the TSC Nutrition Services Department to two locations with stops along the CityBus route: Romney Meadows Apartment Homes in Lafayette and Point West Mobile Home Community in West Lafayette. Additional pickup locations may be added in the future.

Lunches will be available starting at noon on a first-come, first-serve basis and will contain meals for five days. The program will continue every Monday until further notice. Meals must be taken home, and if there is a line for pickup, families must maintain the social distance guideline of six feet, according to TSC.

Greater Lafayette schools learned of May 1 date along with everyone else

As LSC finds its rhythm distributing meals, the school district, along with the rest of Indiana, was bracing itself after a new order from Holcomb. The governor ordered that all Indiana schools will remain closed through May 1.

Holcomb also announced the cancellation of all state testing — including the ISTEP and ILEARN assessments — set to be given later this spring.

LSC, in collaboration with Tippecanoe School Corp. and West Lafayette Community School Corp., had previously made the decision to extend spring break by a week and resume classes April 1, using remote delivery methods.

The three public school districts in Tippecanoe County had hoped to reassess returning to in-person instruction after April 3, a date which has now been extended statewide to May 1.

LSC Superintendent Les Huddle said he learned of the May 1 extension “at the same time the public did.”

The three districts are continuing to work together, as put out in a press release Thursday, and will use a combination of remote learning days and days waived by the state to provide “continuity in instruction for students.”

Each district will individually communicate with families to provide more information, the release said, and an update will be provided to families prior to May 1.

“We’re going to prepare ourselves in case this does last until the end of the school year,” Huddle said.

As far as how this could impact an August start date for the next academic year, Huddle said LSC will continue to plan as if the calendar is regular and is creating alternate plans in case that does change.

Students, especially graduating seniors, are a concern for the district, Huddle said, and the district is working with the high schools to create different options, identify students on a good path to graduate and ensure they graduate on time.

“It’s all we can do to plan and prepare,” Huddle said. “There are still a lot of unknowns and changes likely coming.”

Emily DeLetter is a news reporter for the Journal & Courier. Contact her at (765) 201-8515 or via email at edeletter@jconline.com. Follow her on Twitter at @EmilyDeLetter.