Kansas City schools to resume feeding kids after worker tests negative for COVID-19
Kansas City Public Schools will relaunch its student meal distribution next week after halting the effort when a worker became ill.
“We temporarily suspended this operation due to concerns that one of our food service workers may have become ill from the coronavirus,” Superintendent Mark Bedell said in a note to families this week. “Happily, that staff member tested negative for COVID-19.”
He thanked the Kansas City Health Department for guiding the district through its decision to suspend the operation after Monday’s meal distribution.
When Kansas City area schools were closed to prevent the spread of COVID-19, districts launched curbside pickup of meals prepared by food service workers. Workers were concerned that many students who get their only meals for the day at school might go hungry.
KCPS, with the largest free food distribution operation among schools in the area, had been feeding hundreds of students on Mondays and Wednesdays.
It was the third district in the metro area to suspend its lunch distribution. Tonganoxie and Raytown districts temporarily stopped their programs late last month after workers became ill. Raytown relaunched this week, and Tonganoxie school officials said they will start again next week.
Kansas City families were instructed to get free lunches at Children’s Mercy Hospital clinics until the district could resume its giveaway. But few families showed up Wednesday.
Beginning next week, breakfast and lunch in a sack will be available for pickup from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays at Northeast Middle School, 4904 Independence Ave.; East High School, 924 Van Brunt Blvd.; and Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School, 4848 Woodland Ave.
