Expansion of Meal Distribution Sites

Expansion of Meal Distribution Sites
Posted on 03/26/2020
Latest Coronavirus Updates

We know that school closures can have a huge impact on the health and well-being of our students. In our district, 68% of our students — about 10,494 children — qualify for free and/or reduced-priced meals.

With the success of our meal distribution sites, Citrus Schools is expanding our reach to families by adding meal sites at more schools and now on school bus routes as well.

Starting Monday, March 30th, Citrus Schools will continue to ensure that students have accessibility to nutritious meals. Our Food and Nutrition Services Department has identified four additional locations to our already successful seven locations to provide meals - breakfast and lunch - at no cost to all school-aged children.

Each location will resume serving food to school-aged children on Monday, March 30th, at 10 a.m. and remain open until 1 p.m. daily. We encourage parents and caregivers to drive to our school site locations.  You can find a list of these sites by visiting https://bit.ly/2UjBT2M.

With the success of our school distribution sites, we will also be starting our school bus routes with our food service employees who will be distributing food directly from our school buses. This distribution will start at 10 a.m. and end at 1 p.m. daily. We will have 35 routes staged at strategic locations throughout the county.  You can find a list of these sites by visiting https://bit.ly/2QN4co4.  District employees will be handing out meals to families who are at the designated bus stops. 

Meals to be handed out will consist of the recommended items per USDA guidelines. 

Community Partnerships

We are so fortunate in Citrus County to have partnerships with so many wonderful non-profits in our community.  We are partnering with Citrus County Blessings, a local non-profit which provides weekend food bags to over 1500 students in Citrus County who are faced with food insecurity at home.  On Thursdays, a Blessings volunteer will be distributing weekend meals to families they serve. If your child is enrolled in the Blessings program and you would like to pick up their weekend bags at a bus stop location, please call #352-341-7707 to ensure a bag is ready for your child at a designated stop. You can also visit www.citruscountyblessings.org and hit the “contact us” button.  Families should be prepared to show identification to receive meals. 

Not only will families get meals on our bus routes, they can also collect school supplies.  This is all thanks to the wonderful volunteers at the Citrus County Education Foundation.  Supplies such as notebooks, paper, crayons, and pencils will be available for distribution if needed. 

A special thanks to several community partners who mobilized immediately to get the Citrus County School District and the Citrus County Education Foundation up and running with coolers to transport meals safely on our buses.  Several of our partners also donated their time, money and effort to make sure we had everything needed for our mobile feeding sites to be ready to go on Monday, March 30th.

Special Thanks to our Community Partners:

Duke Energy

Lowe’s

Walmart

DRC Sports

JJ and Jennifer Grow

The Brannen Family

Inverness Kiwanis

Shane Bryant

Citrus County YMCA

Mike & Tracey Hinde

Maggie Lampasona