Despite closure of Merced County schools, meals for students continue

All 20 school district’s in Merced County ended classes to students on Thursday, to take special precautions to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

With the closures, however, that did not mean work had come to an end for campus workers and others.

At schools throughout Merced County, food service staff distributed walk up and drive up meals to students, many of whom depend on school meals to get daily nutrition.

At Golden Valley High School Thursday morning, Merced Union High School District Superintendent Alan Peterson said the food service was going well.

Peterson said staff focused on presenting a calm and thoughtful demeanor explaining the situation to students.

“I am very proud of our cabinet, our principals, our site staff just handled horribly extenuating circumstances, something we’ve never dealt with as a society in modern times anyway,” Peterson said.

Peterson said the principals office will be staffed from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. and food service will be available at all sites.

The school districts will continue to communicate with students and families through social media as well as the district website and email, he said.

“We all need to stay positive. Keep our heads up. We’re all going to get through this. It’s going to be OK, but we need to follow the precautions,” he said.

According to the MCOE website, children must be present to receive the meal. To assist parents and students, MCOE has created an online map at mcoe.org/covid19 to help find a location to pick up meals.

According to the map, in some areas of the county, breakfast and lunch can be picked up at students’ designated bus stop, at the scheduled morning pick-up times.

Schools are slated to reopen April 20.

This story was originally published March 20, 2020 at 7:18 AM.