Northeast News

Late Monday afternoon, Kansas City Public Schools released a statement explaining that they would temporarily suspend meal distribution for students.

The announcement reads:

The health, safety and wellbeing of our students, families, staff and community are our top priorities in Kansas City Public Schools. We have been working diligently since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic emergency to meet the needs of our students so that they can thrive. This support has included distributing meals for our students and families. We want you to be aware that we are temporarily suspending our meal distribution initiative as of tomorrow, April 7, 2020.

Public health concerns are driving this decision to suspend our meal distributions for students. U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams issued a recent warning that the pandemic is reaching a peak in this country and communities need to take extreme steps to self-quarantine. The public health concerns of putting numerous KCPS employees, students and families together is driving our decision-making process.

One KCPS Child Nutrition Services staff member has a presumed positive case of COVID-19. We have been in contact with the Kansas City Health Department about this presumed case. The Kansas City Health Department is providing guidance for several other employees in the food services team to self-quarantine. Out of an abundance of caution and care, we are temporarily suspending our meal distribution.

This was not an easy decision. We understand that many of our families depend on school meals to help meet the nutritional needs of their children. We encourage families to utilize the Harvester’s website to locate food pantries and mobile food distribution points in your area. Children’s Mercy Hospital is also distributing meals free of charge for children. A list of these and other support services are available on our COVID-19 pandemic response site at kcpublicschools.org/coronavirus.

We will continue to monitor the situation and will update our plans based on guidance from public health authorities. We intend to relaunch student meal distributions as soon as it is safe to do so. Please stay safe and healthy.