While school children are home from school until at least Mar. 29, Radford City Public Schools is making efforts to ensure they have food to eat.
Monday, RCPS loaded up school buses and traveled the bus routes normally used to pick up children to go to school but instead dropped off breakfast and lunches to any Radford student at the stops.
The school division issued the following statement on its website regarding food pick-up.
“RCPS food distribution program during the mandatory school closure time frame will begin Monday, March 16, 2020. Food delivery will occur Monday through Friday and will include both breakfast and lunch meals for students. All meals will be grab-n-go and offered free of charge to all students who will pick up breakfast and lunch at the same time. There are no income or eligibility requirements for students to pick up these meals.
Students who wish to take advantage of this opportunity must be present to pick up their food and should be at their normal elementary bus stop three hours later than the usual elementary morning pick up time. Please note, that the student must be present as this is a mandatory requirement of the USDA and VDOE. We ask that you be patient with deliveries as food preparation and delivery can take time.
A copy of the six morning elementary bus route schedules can be found inside today’s edition of the Radford News Journal. When reviewing the routes:
Please find your child’s bus number (Bus 1,2,3,4,5 or 6 on the top of each page in the first line)
Find your designated bus stop (third column) and time (first column).
Add three hours to that time to know the time of the food delivery.
If you do not have an elementary student, find the bus stop closest to your residence and add three hours to that stop’s time to know the time in which of your food will be delivered.
For students who are unable to pick up meals at bus stop locations, they can go to McHarg Elementary for pick up Monday-Friday from 10:20 a.m. – 12:20 p.m. In addition to meals, the Bobcat Backpack Program will be offering backpacks of food on Mondays both during the delivery of meals with the buses and also at McHarg Elementary. Please note, that the student must be present as this is a mandatory requirement of the USDA and VDOE.
If you need further clarification or assistance with food delivery, as always reach out to RCPS at 540-731-3647 or through these contacts: Rob Graham at rgraham@rcps.org, Ellen Denny at edenny@rcps.org, Connie Wood at cwood@rcps.org.
