The DeSoto Independent School District Child Nutrition Department is offering dinner meals as part of its grab and go meal service distribution starting Monday, May 11.
According to Desoto ISD, the addition of dinner meals is meant to ensure greater access to daily meals for children in the community amid the continuing shelter-in-place ordinance in Dallas County due to COVID-19.
When the district’s meal distribution began as a daily breakfast and lunch meal pick up for students on weekdays. The meal distribution plan later expanded to include breakfast and lunch meals for all seven days of the week.
The school district reduced meal distribution days to only two days per week in an effort to limit the possibility of community spread of the coronavirus following recommendations from area public health officials and the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control.
On Mondays, the students can pick up meals for Monday through Wednesday, and on Thursdays, students can pick up meals for Thursday through Sunday.
“The addition of the dinner meals follows the district superintendent’s desire to ensure that every child has access to quality nutritious meals every day of the week,” DeSoto ISD Chief of Staff Sonya Cole-Hamilton said. “As a district, it is our goal and our duty to meet the needs of students and remove barriers to learning. Ensuring that children’s foundational human needs are met, is a step in that direction and one of many efforts to ensure children and families are physically and mentally healthy during school closures as a result of COVID-19.”
Students are not required to be present with their parent or guardian to participate in the meal distribution program if the parent can provide any of the following verification methods to staff at the distribution site:
- Official letter/email/electronic school application from school listing children enrolled
- Individual student report cards
- Attendance record from parent portal of the school website, printed or electronic, that includes the name(s) of the child(ren)
- Birth certificates for children not in school
- Student ID cards
Parents may not pick up meals for children outside of their household or for whom they do not maintain legal guardianship.
The free grab-and-go meals are available for anyone 18 or younger, whether or not they are a DeSoto ISD student. Meals will continue to be served in a curbside drive-thru fashion. All meals are served between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Mondays and Thursdays at the following locations:
- Amber Terrace DECA (via Food Truck)
- Cockrell Hill Elementary
- The Meadows Elementary
- Frank Moates Elementary
- Ruby Young Elementary
- Woodridge Elementary
- DeSoto High School- (Freshman Campus Side)
