CMS meal delivery program aims to feed students and keep jobs during remote learning

A new meal delivery program will keep students fed and more hourly employees on the job when Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools reopens under full remote instruction next Monday.

CMS will operate grab-and-go meal sites from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at 40 sites across the district each weekday. Students will be provided one free breakfast and one free lunch each day.

On Sept. 1, the district will transition to offering weekly meal bundles, which include five breakfasts and lunches, that are frozen with reheating instructions. Students who qualify for free or reduced lunches, or who attend a school where all students have access to subsidized meals, will receive the bundles at no cost.

The district will operate a delivery service for the bundles, using the existing transportation network and school bus drivers to bring the meal kits to each students’ usual assigned bus stop. Each student will be assigned to one of four groups, each assigned to a different weekday for meal pickup and delivery.

“CMS students need to eat so they can learn, and our employees need to work,” said Cathy Beam, executive director of child nutrition services.

CMS board members decided to reopen schools under Plan C, or remote instruction. The decision came after vocal pushback from teachers and school-based employees who opposed the initial plan to reopen with two weeks of in-person orientation before switching to full remote instruction.

The district is encouraging families to sign up for the program with the hopes of keeping more bus drivers and other hourly workers employed in the shift to remote learning. The meal bundles will cost $15 a week for those who are not eligible for subsidies.

Roughly 85,000 students qualify for the free meal bundle service, Beam said. Childcare centers caring for CMS students will receive a daily delivery of meals, Beam said.

Earlier, Superintendent Earnest Winston said that roughly 2,100 hourly positions that could not be done remotely would be in danger of being cut as a result of the shift to virtual learning. Winston said Tuesday that the meal delivery program is a creative way of keeping hourly staff on payroll during the closure of in-person learning.

“Not only will this program provide nutritious meals for our students, but it also offers the opportunity for continued employment for employees whose positions otherwise might have been temporarily suspended with our schools operating in a full remote instruction model,” Winston said in a statement.