ROSEBORO — During a regular school day, Music teacher Cameron Lauer would have been teaching students music, but his Wednesday was spent directing traffic in the parking lot as parents pulled up to get meals for their kids.
“Strange times call for strange measures,” the Roseboro-Salemburg Middle School (RSMS) teacher said. “But we’re here for the kids.”
He was of many employees from Sampson County Schools working to make sure students receive a meal with school being closed because of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) for safety reasons. Distribution began Wednesday, shortly before noon and will continue during the two-week ,which began after Gov. Roy Cooper issued an executive order to close schools throughout the state.
“I’m not really worried about much because we’ll get through it … ,” Lauer said. “I know the parents are coming in there, really happy about us trying to be there for them and the community.”
As the cars entered the parking lot of RSMS, Cafeteria Manager Sharon Sutton and school employees passed out the food. Hundreds of meals were prepared by the cafeteria staff. They were assisted by custodians, the cafeteria staff and deputies from the Sampson County Sheriff’s Office.
“When we were feeding them everyday and glad to see their happy faces,” Sutton said about the students. “We miss them and we just want to provide nutritional meals. We’re going to do everything that we can to make sure that we get the food to the children.”
April Jordan, director of school nutrition, reported that 908 meals were distributed the first day. As the closure continues, the amount is expected to grow each day as more people learn about the service.
“Hopefully those numbers will continue to increase,” Jordan. “We want people to know this is available so they can take advantage of it.”
The plan is to continue as long as school is shut down with the governor’s order.
“Everything went smooth today and everything was well organized,” Jordan said. “We had lot of help from the principals helping organize traffic flow.”
For the Friday pickup, students will receive lunch for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. A breakfast will also be added Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.
Across the state, shelf-stable food is expected to become an issue in the weeks to come, but the district is still receiving fresh fruits and vegetables coming in. When peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are not served, Jordan said a hot entree will be handed out.
“We did PB&J (Wednesday), simply because of not knowing how many students we were going to have and we knew that we could reuse that tomorrow because it was shelf-stable,” she said.
During the week, Jordan said ham sandwiches, sweet potatoes and other fresh fruits and vegetables will be added as a priority.
The lunches and breakfast for any student 18 or under are being served from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. School locations are Hargrove Elementary School, 7725 Faison Hwy., Faison; Hobbton High School, 12201 Hobbton Hwy., Newton Grove; Midway Elementary School, 15375 Spivey’s Corner Hwy., Dunn; RSMS, 305 W. Pleasant St.; and Union Middle School, 455 River Road, Clinton. Snow Hill Baptist Church, Ivanhoe, is providing a meal service from noon to 1 p.m. Jordan said the schools were selected because of the location of the cafeterias, which were in front of the building.
“That way, they wouldn’t have to move food very far,” she said. “They could walk right out the door, hand it to the parent and the parent could move on with limited interaction.”
Starting Monday, Sampson County Schools is adding an additional site at Garland Senior Center, 91 N. Church Ave., Garland. Meals will be served from noon to 1 p.m.
Along with other cafeteria managers across the district, Sutton hopes everybody takes advantage of the food service available.
“I love the children, we all do,” Sutton said. “We want everybody to come on out and get some meals. We got them prepared and ready to go.”
(Chase Jordan | Sampson Independent)
