Families have received the first shipments of food from the national Meals-To-You program through the Mission Consolidated Independent School District.
In addition to being the first to provide families in the state their meals, Mission ISD was the first school district in the state to gain approval of the program through the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Baylor University.
Families enrolled through the program are receiving shipments every two weeks during the duration of the COVID-19 school closure.
For each qualifying child in a household, shipments contain 10 meals a week: five breakfasts and 5 lunches.
Food provided by the program is shelf stable; parents don’t have to worry about them expiring soon. The meals are delivered for free.
“It was such a hard decision when we had to suspend our grab and go meals distribution to students,” Superintendent Dr. Carol G. Perez said in a news release. “We know so many of our families depend upon our meal services. So when we heard about the emergency Meals-To-You opportunity shortly after we suspended our services, we immediately began the application process with the hopes this would come through for our families.”
10,581 district students and 1,200 children, from ages 12 months to 3 years, were able to complete the enrollment verification process, according to Dr. Perez. 800 parents declined the meals and some students were unable to complete the process within the deadline the district had with the program.
“It is our hope that we will get another enrollment window of opportunity from the Meals-To-You program administrators that will allow more of our families to possibly benefit from the program,” Perez said. “We know there is still a need there and we are continuing to look for other programs that may be able to offer some assistance.”
