A successful second meal kit distribution held Tuesday helped feed multiple families at Loudoun County Public Schools.
LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. — Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) has struggled to keep up with the demand for free meals for two days.
A lack of food at one of the Loudoun County Public Schools meal distribution sites prompted LCPS to collect a second meal package from Leesburg Elementary School on Tuesday.
The meal packagesincluding seven days of lunch and breakfast, will have a one-day meal on Tuesday, June 28 from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. while supplies last at Leesburg Elementary School.
On Tuesday, families rejected the day before LCPS when they ran out of food arrived early with another chance to get some meals.
LCPS had minor setbacks with only 15 minutes in distribution, running out of food to hand out. This time, however, they came prepared and were raised again.
An hour later, a truck transported additional meals to the site and provided more than 2,000 meals to families attending the distribution.
LCPS told WUSA9 that every family had the opportunity to receive a meal. Going forward, they plan to keep up with demand going forward.
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Hoyler said he was alerted around Monday morning that the Leesburg Elementary School site was out of meals in about 20 minutes.
On Monday, 20 families showed up at the Leesburg Elementary meal site for the first day of summer distribution and were turned away because there weren’t enough meals to distribute, an LCPS spokesperson said.
“They were told there was no communication from the school about what had happened and people were waiting outside, but there was no one outside to let them know we were out of food,” Andrew Hoyler, the Broad Run District representative for the Loudoun County School Board said.
An LCPS spokesperson said 5,600 meals have been prepared for the first day of the program, enough for 420 seven-day food packages. The spokesman said more meals will be prepared in the coming weeks now that they know what demand to expect.
“We’re in a very different situation this summer when it comes to the economy and household disposable income than we were last summer, so the food issue is more important than ever,” Hoyler said.
Hoyler said that as soon as the news broke in the community, there were not enough meals, local businesses and organizations mobilized to try to help.
“It’s very soothing to know that the community still cares about each other, despite all the negativity out there about Loudon about LCPS, we’re still a really great community that really cares about each other,” Hoyler said.
Loudoun4All, a local advocacy group, organized its own takeaway at Leesburg Elementary Monday night, hours after several families in the same location were turned away because there weren’t enough meals available.
“We saw a number of people pass by. We have people taking food for other people in the area, which is huge,” said Amanda Bean, a Loudoun4All board member.
Loudoun4All suspected they would feed about 100 people based on the number of people who quit Monday night.
“No child should go to bed hungry, no one should go to bed hungry. And I think we have great resources in Loudoun, but the hardest part is that when people rely on one resource, like the lunchtime distribution here, when it doesn’t, it’s not always easy to switch to the other resources,” Bean said. .
Bean and Hoyler said the school system’s underrated number of meal kits shows an increased demand for meal aid across the community.
“We’ve got a reputation here in Loudoun. You know people hear that we’re the richest county in America and they think this whole county has it right, and that couldn’t be further from the truth,” Hoyler said.
LCPS meal packs can be picked up from Park View High School, Leesburg Elementary School, Rolling Ridge Elementary School, Sterling Elementary School, and Sugarland Elementary School Monday to August 8, between 9.30am and 11am, while supplies last.