District staff feed students despite school closures

The students stopped while walking the muddy road toward home. They turned to face the school bus parked off Farm To Market Road.

“Thank you,” they said.

Bus driver Dale Brant and fifth grade teachers Jessica Thoeny and Sam Hannah had just handed the children bags containing breakfast, lunch and accompanying cartons of milk. The distribution trio teamed up March 18 as Libby Public Schools continued delivering food for students who qualify for free and reduced price meals and live out of town.

The school district organized the meal delivery effort after Gov. Steve Bullock’s announcement March 15 that ordered public schools to close for at least two weeks to help slow the spread of COVID-19.

On March 18, bus drivers covered the usual 15 school bus routes. Passengers included teachers and other school district staff who had signed up to help distribute the food.

The district provided 286 meals on March 18 and planned to continue offering the food through March 20. Meals will not be provided during the previously scheduled spring break, March 23 – 27.

Superintendent Craig Barringer and others helped load buses with food prepared or packed March 18 at the former Asa Wood Elementary School on Idaho Avenue.

“We’re a little better today than we were yesterday and tomorrow we’ll probably be better than we are today,” Barringer said.

Brittany Catzer, a counselor for grades K-8, volunteered to help distribute the meals. She said some children and families might react with anxiety to the change in routine.

Barringer agreed.

“I hope that seeing the buses and the delivery of meals creates a sense of hope and calm for our families,” he said. “It’s not all doom and gloom.”

The meals distributed included some combination of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, salad or a vegetable, fruits, a breakfast bar, yogurt, a cheese stick and Cheez-It crackers. Milk cartons were part of each meal.

Food service staff toiled in the kitchen at Asa Wood to prepare meals for March 19. Workers included Laurie Cassel, Becky Sarbaum and Sharon Schnackenberg, who set up an assembly line of sorts to slice honeydew melons.

About 52 percent of students in Libby Public Schools qualify for free and reduced meals. Bullock’s office said March 15 that public schools would work to provide free meals to students who need them, a service enabled by a waiver from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

On March 10, the agriculture department had announced that during an unexpected school closure “schools can leverage their participation in one of USDA’s summer meal programs to provide meals at no cost to students.” Typically, guidelines require serving the meals in a group setting.

“However, in a public health emergency, the law allows USDA the authority to waive the group setting meal requirement, which is vital during a social distancing situation,” the department said.

Libby Public Schools planned to start delivering homework assignments also on March 19. The district is trying to determine how many students have access to the Internet as an emphasis on remote learning becomes a possibility in the weeks ahead. Many observers believe public schools will remain closed longer than the two weeks first ordered by Bullock.

“We plan on coming back to school on March 30, but if we do not our staff has created a system that will allow us to continue as we have this week,” Barringer said. “In the event of the Governor’s declaration being extended we will continue to offer meals and provide [homework] for students.”

Barringer commended the district’s staff for quickly creating a new educational model.

“Master teachers are the type of people that in times of need they are at their best,” he said.

Thoeny and Hannah said they signed up to help with meals distribution as a way to connect with students and offer them encounters with friendly faces.

Hannah said she worries about students described as “high impact,” whose homes can be difficult environments because of adult substance abuse or domestic abuse or both.

“Some kids feel safer at school,” she said.