School Districts Provide free meals for students

School Districts Provide free meals for students

The Utica School District is providing free lunch for pickup throughout the district, but the experience is a whole lot different at Rome Catholic.

School district is providing free meals to students, and all you have to do is pick them up.

Newschannel 2's kirk tupaj explains how the service is changing, and the people it affects.

These food service workers start each day at around 4:30 in the morning to prepare meals for up to eight thousand students.

Michael ferraro is the utica city school districts director of food service.

He says you can pick up free breakfast and lunch at any school throughout the district from 9 am until 1:30 pm five days a week.

.

None .

None sot: michael ferraro, director of food service utica school district we've been working around the clock sie march wn we cled on the 1h.

We haven'tstoppe day.

We've been serving 5 days a week right through.

For parents like delayne baumann the service is a breath of fresh air.

Sot: delayne baumann, utica resident i'm a full-time mom.

Then i work part-time.

So between the remote learning and then my work schedule, it's like i got no sleep and i'm juggling through all of it.

Students that pick up their meals may notice a difference in the type of food they're now getting.

Sot: michael ferraro, director of food service utica school district when covid hit we served bagged lunches, you know grab and go meals.

We're trying to serve like a hot meal that they can reheat now a couple days a week, just to try to make it a little more normal.

Sot: kirk tupaj even though they've sent out emails, newsletters, and posts on social media, the utica school district is still trying to get the word out about the free lunch program because they know there's still families out there in need of assistance.

Sot: angela martir, utica resident if i didn't have this program we would& you know a little struggle a little bit.

Sot: omar thompson, utica resident taking care of 6 kids.

You know working.

You know that's a lot.

Schooling.

Home schooling.

Sot: michael ferraro, director of food service utica school district so the need is there.

The district wants to make sure that need you know& we continue to fill that need on a daily basis.

We'll provide a link to the district's breakfast and lunch menus on our website wktv.com.

In utica, i'm kirk tupaj reporting for newschannel 2.> it's their anniversary, but they are