DeSoto ISD to Add Dinner Meals to Free Student Meal Distribution

0
DeSoto ISD dinner meals

DeSoto ISD Expands Free Meals To Include Dinner

DeSoto, TX– Beginning Monday, May 11, 2020, the DeSoto Independent School District Child Nutrition Department will offer dinner meals as part of the current twice-weekly grab and go meal service distribution to ensure greater access to daily meals for the children in the community in light of the continuing shelter-in-place ordinance in Dallas County due to COVID-19.

When the district’s meal distribution began, the format involved daily breakfast and lunch meal pick up for students on weekdays. The meal distribution plan, then, expanded to cover breakfast and lunch meals for all seven days of the week. Given the recommendation of area public health officials and following the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control, DeSoto ISD reduced meal distribution days to occur two days per week in an effort to limit the possibility of community spread of the coronavirus.

On Mondays, the students were able to pick up meals for Monday through Wednesday and on Thursdays, students have the opportunity to pick up meals for Thursday through Sunday.

“The addition of the dinner meals follows the district superintendent’s desire to ensure that every child has access to quality nutritious meals every day of the week,” said DeSoto ISD Chief of Staff Sonya Cole-Hamilton. “As a district, it is our goal and our duty to meet the needs of students and remove barriers to learning. Ensuring that children’s foundational human needs are met, is a step in that direction and one of many efforts to ensure children and families are physically and mentally healthy during school closures as a result of Covid-19.”

As a reminder, students are no longer required to be present with their parent or guardian to participate in the meal distribution program if the parent can provide any of the following verification methods to staff at the distribution site:

  • Official letter/email/electronic school application from school listing children enrolled
  • Individual student report cards
  • Attendance record from parent portal of the school website, printed or electronic, that includes the name(s) of the child(ren)
  • Birth certificates for children not in school
  • Student ID cards

Please note that parents may not receive meals for other children outside of their household or for whom they do not maintain legal guardianship.

The free grab-and-go meals are provided to anyone 18 years of age or younger, whether or not they are a DeSoto ISD student. Meals will also continue to be served in a curbside drive-thru fashion and with no need to need to exit the vehicle.

Please see the list below for sites operated by the DeSoto ISD Child Nutrition Department. All meals are served between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Mondays and Thursdays at the following locations.

The Complete of List of Meal Service locations

Amber Terrace DECA (via Food Truck)
Cockrell Hill Elementary
The Meadows Elementary
Frank Moates Elementary
Ruby Young Elementary
Woodridge Elementary
DeSoto High School- (Freshman Campus Side)
For a digital map of the sites, please go to https://desotoisd.nutrislice.com/menu/.