They've already started delivering food to low-income students in county schools
In the middle of an almost desolate Los Angeles, where many of its neighbors are in quarantine or in confinement due to the spread of the coronavirus, some parents went to the Robert F. Kennedy school on Wednesday to collect food for their children.
The educational center is one of the 60 sites that the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has arranged for as of today low-income students can have the two meals a day that they usually have in schools, closed by order of the governor and local authorities.
The following interactive map created by LAUSD can locate the 60 food collection centers for low-income students in Los Angeles:
This district, with around 670,000 students distributed in some 900 schools, closed the educational centers from Monday to mitigate the advance of COVID-19.
Silvia González, 32 years old, she has four children studying in schools in this district, the second largest in the country, and accompanied by Jasmine, in the seventh grade and Alexandra, in the second, came for the food distributed in bags to the "Robert Kennedy".
"The children's food that is stored there for schools is a great help for the family economy," said González. "And more today than in several supermarkets in Los Angeles they have risen three times! to many products ”, he exclaimed.
The girls look healthy and happy with the food bags and their mother carries other bags for "the little ones" who, as a precaution, preferred to leave them at home.
The adults, with some shyness, arrive at the post attended by angelic teachers, who tell them that they do not even need to show their children's student IDs to carry the bags.
Hours and food available
Food will be distributed from Monday to Friday for four hours, starting at 6:30 am, local time, and in the bags there is milk, cereal, juices, sandwiches and individual pizzas, among others.
Mounted on a bicycle he arrived Kevin Estrada, 20, to pick up and bring breakfast and lunch for her two younger brothers who stayed home.
"These resources help us, because many of us are losing our jobs and we save on the cost of food for the children," said Estrada, who works in a Korean restaurant that, he said, is increasingly scarce diners.
"Here they already have the food ready, ready, just for us to take, this will help us all," said Estrada.
While handing out bags near the end of the day, Tony Byron, a fourth-grade teacher, said that the number of parents and students who arrived "was moderate, like more than 100, some carried several bags."
"We hope that from tomorrow more will come, because these are the foods of their children," he recalled.
A LAUSD spokeswoman said that when the LAUSD Board of Education decided to close schools, they considered creating "family resource centers" to assist families with various needs, including an open cafeteria for students.
But the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health told school superintendent Austin Beutner, "it was not safe for students," the spokeswoman explained, adding to that. they chose to open the 60 food stalls to “take and take”.
Lucy Soriano, a fifth-grade teacher who now distributes food, said that, in theory, students should be receiving computer and internet classes at home. "But with this crisis we have learned that due to the large number of students connected to the LAUSD site, the system freezes," he revealed.
"And some students don't have a computer, but schools could lend them if the education authorities spread the order to lend them throughout the district," he suggested.
The teacher also asked internet providers to allow free access to students.s “in this emergency” due to the coronavirus.
In his 2019 report "Free or Reduced Price Food", This school district noted that "almost 80% of the students" in the Los Angeles district qualify for food at no cost or at a minimum price.
Of all students in this school district, 73.4% are Latino; 10.5% non-Hispanic whites; 8.2% African-American and 4.2% Asian, among others.
