Fayette County wasn’t planning to feed kids this week. So these volunteers stepped in
Fayette County Public Schools are on spring break this week so they were not planning on feeding school kids. But many had come to rely on the meals being provided over the last two weeks that schools have been closed for the coronavirus pandemic.
Add to that the complication that the school district announced it would stop its “Bus Bites” feeding program after an employee tested positive for COVID-19 last week. While the schools were able to come up with a solution with the help of Coaches John Calipari and Matthew Mitchell, that won’t start until April, after the break.
But late Friday, the non-profit FoodChain put out a call for help ramping up its ongoing meals program to cover school kids in need.
Working with Dupree Catering and Aramark at UK Dining, FoodChain’s kitchen planned to prepared an additional 800 meals to cover areas of town where they would be needed most. Then the United Way joined the effort and asked if they could make it 1,000 meals.
And the offers of help started rolling in. Crank & Boom Ice Cream released CAndy Beshear, a special candy-laden ice cream for special orders to raise money. Almost 1,000 sold in 24 hours, with $2 each going to FoodChain. Then the last 20 pints were sold for $100 each, all for the non-profit, raising $2,000 more.
According to past Monday on FoodChain’s Facebook page, other grants and donations came in, getting them to their goal of paying for all the needed meals.
Eight local businesses, including Lundy’s Special Events, Holly Hill Events, Doodles Breakfast & Lunch, Sunrise Bakery and Keeneland jumped in to help prepare meals. Glean Kentucky, Dupree Catering and the local American Red Cross will help get the meals to the distribution centers and passed out safely. Bluegrass Distillers offered hand sanitizer and Lexington Farmers Market offered portable washing stations to sue as well.
“All in all, it’s been unbelievable the outpouring of support and collective effort to to right by the most vulnerable kids among us. And we’re hoping that you too can find this story to be restorative in the good that surrounds us, even in these troublesome times,” FoodChain posted on Facebook. “Thank you Lexington. Thank you all. Now let’s get to feeding!”
Students and caregivers should dial 2-1-1 for the most up to date list of lunch sites and times for our families who need this assistance at this time, or go to uwbg211.org.
This story was originally published March 30, 2020 at 4:05 PM.
