Woodland Hills School District Providing All Students With Grab And Go Meals
NORTH BRADDOCK (KDKA) - Whether students are learning remotely, in a hybrid model, or back in the classroom this year, they all still have to eat.
For many, school lunches will be a lot different this school year.
Woodland Hills School District is making sure all students will be able to get breakfast and lunch regardless of where they live or learn.
This week marks the first week back to school for Woodland Hills students and for now the district is doing remote learning.
All students, however, receive free breakfast and lunch thanks to the district providing grab and go meals.
The pre-packaged meals can be picked up from one of the district schools and each bag includes lunch for the day and breakfast for the next day.
If students are unable to make it, school buses and vans are being used for mobile sites. Cafeteria workers package the meals at school and take the meals to various neighborhoods so students are fed.
"It's a little bit more preparation because we're packaging everything to go to different sites but they're happy to do it, they want to be back to work and feed the kids," said Kylene McLean, the Woodland Hills School District Food Service Director.
"We learned that students lived in difficult to reach areas, and we started setting up remote sites, but now mobile is a new way to reach them," said James Harris, Woodland Hills Superintendent.
To make sure they are reaching as many students as possible, the district sent robocalls to parents in the district, letting them know the meals were available.
WATCH: Woodland Hills Setting Up Mobile Lunch Sites
"We want these kids to eat, we know that they may not have access to food during specific times of the day and they depend on school lunch and school breakfast and especially if it's free, and we can get it to them, we want to provide the meals for every one of our students," McLean said.
The cafeteria workers say they enjoy going to the neighborhoods because it gives them a chance to see the kids they haven't seen since the spring.
They're hoping more students take advantage of the grab and go meals.
Families in the Woodland Hills School District can find a full list of dates and times for meal distribution on the district's website.