Oakland, CA – The “Grab and Go” free meal program for Oakland students is now in its third day and expects to continue growing exponentially. On day one of the program last Monday, March 16, OUSD Nutrition Services gave out about 25,000 meals to roughly 4,100 students. On Thursday, March 19, the second day of meal service, about 10,000 students received 50,000 meals. Today, the program has 90,000 meals ready for pickup.
Along with the work done by our nutrition services staff and other district staff and volunteers, we are partnering with Stephen and Ayesha Curry’s Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation and other funders to support the food program. We have teamed up with the World Central Kitchen and Revolution Foods to provide dinners, the Alameda County Community Food Bank to provide bags of groceries, and SupplyBank.org to provide other items including feminine hygiene products.
“This is how we will get through this challenging time, by working together – while exercising safe social distancing – and supporting each other, especially those most in need,” said Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell. “Our families have needs that we help fill during the best of times, and it only gets tougher when our world is facing such remarkable adversity. I thank all of our staff for being there for our students, and special thanks to all of our community partners for stepping up to support the young people of Oakland.”
As was the case last week, the Grab and Go program is taking place at 12 different schools across the District. The sites are:
● In Northwest and West Oakland, Sankofa Elementary, West Oakland Middle School, and Hoover Elementary.
● In Central Oakland, Oakland High School, and Garfield Elementary
● And in East Oakland, the schools are Bret Harte Middle School, Life Academy and United for Success, Coliseum College Prep Academy, Madison Park Upper, Fremont High School, Castlemont High School, and Elmhurst United Middle School.
The food service is available for all OUSD students and any child in Oakland under the age of 18. Today, each student will be able to pick up three breakfasts, three lunches and three suppers to last through Wednesday. On Thursday, they can get two of each to finish the week. Students and their families are asked to bring bags or boxes to carry the food home.
The service runs until noon, and will begin again on Thursday, March 26 at 8:00 a.m.
Note: this post was made from a press release sent to Zennie62Media by OUSD.