SINCE MARCH, OUR Child Nutrition Department has served more than 3.6 million meals. When we first started, it was hard to imagine we would serve more than 1, 2 or 3 million meals. To be honest, that wasn’t even on our minds. We were focused on making sure the kids got their meals and that we had a system in place that could sustain the demand while maintaining a safe work environment for our staff.

Day after day for the last 9 months, our staff has worked so hard to pack meals, provide food for the kids and offer a sense of normalcy for them. I think it shows the dedication they have for our department to do what we have done across the 18 school sites that we have served from.

Child Nutrition staff have been distributing the meals through a drive thru curbside pickup. It has been our mission to continue to provide healthy meals to students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It’s our Child Nutrition staff, District personnel, and our industry partners that have made this important work possible.

Madera Unified Child Nutrition staff is made up of 140 hardworking and dedicated heroes, who have worked throughout this pandemic to make sure our students are fed regularly. We have provided weekly meal kits since March providing fresh fruit, vegetables, milk, and have continued to provide some of the kids favorite entrée items (chicken drumsticks and tamales to name a few). In early November we reached the milestone of providing more than 3 million meals since the COVID-19 pandemic began when our students left school campuses. We are thankful for everyone who has been with us every step of the way to help sustain and feed our families.

With the coronavirus pandemic and the devastating wildfires that are destroying our state, school meals are more essential than ever for making sure kids have good nutritious food to eat. Distance learning has been hard enough for many students and families. We did not want them to have additional stress to worry about food for the kids. It’s our hope that our weekly meal kits provide a sense of normalcy to their day. We hope it’s a reminder of being back at school with their friends and teachers learning in a safe and healthy environment. Soon enough we’ll be back to normal and we look forward to that day when we can serve our kids a fresh healthy meal at school.

I am extremely proud of our collective efforts in providing meals to all of the children and their families during these uncertain times. Staff members at Madera Unified School District are incredibly caring and committed. I want to thank everyone for their support, hard work, and dedication!

The district continues to serve meals at 18 sites on Wednesdays, from 11 AM to 12:30 PM and an evening meal service from 5 – 6 PM for families that can’t pick up meals during the day.

— Brian Chiarito, Director Child Nutrition