VVUHS District staff go the extra mile during its meal pickup program

VICTORVILLE, Calif. — Victor Valley Union High School District staff went the extra mile (literally) to make sure local students had access to school meals this week.

With schools closed due to COVID-19, VVUHSD Nutrition Services workers served approximately 4,740 meals to children in Victorville and Adelanto from Tuesday through Friday — including 172 to one of the most remote areas served by the district.

Realizing an additional need in the El Mirage area, Nutrition Services teamed up with the district’s Transportation Department to transport meals to El Mirage Elementary School, handing them out to both VVUHSD and Adelanto Elementary School District students on Thursday and Friday.

Before the expansion of VVUHSD’s program, those families would have faced a drive of 30 minutes or more to pick up meals.  

VVUHSD also offered meals at seven of its eight campuses this week, available to all children in the community via drive-up distribution (Goodwill High School does not have a kitchen facility, so students were able to pick up food at nearby Victor Valley High).

Participation grew each day of the week, and by Friday 1,890 students received bagged meals that included breakfast and lunch.

“The students were happy to see their lunch staff,” VVUHSD Nutrition Services Field Supervisor Robynne Sokolowski said. “The parents showed great appreciation for meals and conveyed how important it was for their family, with some of them being laid off due to the Coronavirus restrictions.”

The meal service will continue after the district’s regularly scheduled Spring Break, with pickup available each weekday from 10 a.m. to noon starting March 30.

Essential staff, including administrators, are working during school closures and are present during the meal pickups.

“Meal service this week has been both heartwarming and very rewarding,” Silverado Principal Heather Conkle said. “It was great to see our families, even at a distance.  And the meal service itself became as much of an anticipated outing and a modified social destination as it did a necessity for the meals themselves.”

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