nothin Meal Schedule Sparks Safety Debate | New Haven Independent

Meal Schedule Sparks Safety Debate

Maya McFadden photo

Free meal distribution outside Jepson School Wednesday.

As the city public school system transitions to a three-day-a-week free meal distribution schedule to reduce potential exposure to the novel coronavirus, school workers and hungry family members warned against limiting the schedule to such an extent that it becomes inconvenient for the people who need the food.

And a Board of Education member and top city school administrators contemplated bumping down the schedule even further to make sure that those involved don’t get sick.

This week marks the first week that New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) is distributing free breakfast and lunch meals to hungry public school families at 38 school sites throughout the city on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday only.

For the past month of the Covid-19 pandemic, the schools had distributed free meals at those same sites on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

Mayor Justin Elicker, NHPS Superintendent Iline Tracey, and top school administrators made the shift so as to limit workers’ and families’ potential exposure to the novel coronavirus at a time when they are advising New Haveners to severely limit the number of times they leave their homes so as to not inadvertently spread or contract the virus. The city is bracing for its peak hospitalization day to be sometime early next week.

The amount of food being distributed has not changed with the reduced schedule. Families can now pick up two days’ worth of food every time they swing by a meal distribution site.

During interviews at various school sites Wednesday morning, food service workers said they are ok with the reduced schedule — because they feel adequately protected by gloves, masks, and hand sanitizer. They cautioned against reducing the schedule even further to one day a week so as to not make it too inconvenient for families.

Parents accompanying their kids to pick up free meals Wednesday morning told the Independent the same thing.

While at Monday’s Board of Education meeting, school board members and top NHPS administrators considered dropping the schedule even further out of an abundance of caution for workers’ and families’ health.

I Feel Safe”

Aysegul at Ross/Woodward on Wednesday

NHPS cafeteria staff didn’t express too much concern about feeling unsafe Wednesday morning as they served the free grab and go meals. Rather, they favored the newly adjusted three-day work week to be sure they can continue serving visitors in need.

A food service worker at Nathan Hale School said that if less days are offered for students to pick up meals, then the packages would only get larger and more difficult for visitors to carry home.

The Nathan Hale worker, who asked to remain anonymous, said that she established a system to keep herself and each visitor safe.

Outside Nathan Hale School’s food pick up site.

The worker asks each visitor to stand more than six feet away from the entrance, at a cone marker.

After she is told how many meals are needed, she will put them on a cart that is right outside of the door.

Then after closing the door, she gestures to the visitor to come up and retrieve the meals, avoiding all physical contact.

At Ross/Woodward School, a staff member named Aysegul worked alone Wednesday morning.

When Aysegul arrived in the morning for her shift, she packaged as many bagged meals as she could while also doing paperwork she is required to do while working. On Wednesday morning, she packaged 62 meals.

During her shifts, Aysegul wears her own mask and a pair of disposable gloves provided by NHPS. I feel safe. I just can’t work as much as I should because I have kids at home,” she said.

Aysegul’s youngest is three years old. She said, in order to work all her shifts during a week, she sometimes has to have her older sons watch her youngest.

For Aysegul, while fewer work days would be helpful to be with her family more, she said she prefers the current three-day weeks to continue working and getting paid.

I sometimes have to pack as I go because it’s just me here,” Aysegul said.

While picking up four meals for her family at Ross/Woodward, Anna Gonzalez said she hopes the service keeps offering pick ups three days a week.

The change from five days was disappointing, but at least with three days we still have opportunity. Mondays are horrible for me. I wouldn’t be able to feed my kids if they offered less days,” she said. 

Alford at Truman School Wednesday.

Betty Alford (pictured by the door), lead chef of Truman School’s cafeteria, said the change to three days a week is working well so far. While serving visitors Wednesday, Alford reminded them to come back on Friday, not Thursday.

Truman was staffed with two cafeteria workers on Wednesday. Three days is good. We put two days worth of food in each. So as long as they are getting enough food, I’m okay with working,” she said.

Alford said she and the other workers are provided with gloves, masks, hand sanitizer, and disinfectant wipes while working, keeping her from worrying while working during the week.

A Logistical Nightmare”

Zoom

Board of Education member Tamiko Jackson-McArthur: We can prevent deaths.

The same debate about how best to balance convenience and safety around free meal distribution during the pandemic took place Monday night during a virtual Board of Education meeting held online via the Zoom teleconferencing app.

The mayor is telling us to stay home and that if you leave the house, you should put on a mask. A lot of parents are frontline workers, meaning they have to go to work. To me, that’s exposure that we can help mitigate,” Board of Education member Tamiko Jackson-McArthur said.

That exposure was particularly concerning in the context of who is being most affected by the virus, she said.

While anyone can get this, most of the people who are dying are black and brown. I’m imploring the board to figure out a solution,” she said.

Zoomed Board of Ed meeting

NHPS Chief Operating Officer Michael Pinto has been organizing the meal distribution. He said that it is difficult to make, package and give out more days of meals at a time.

It is a logistical nightmare. Our coolers cannot hold hundreds of juice boxes and milk. For the families that come out, how would they even cart these things home? Many of them are walking,” Superintendent Iline Tracey added.

Board member Darnell Goldson: These are frontline workers.

Board member Darnell Goldson added his concerns to Jackson-McArthur’s. Goldson focused on school employees being exposed to so many people without much personal protective equipment.

Goldson said that staff members have been calling and texting him that they are afraid and do not feel adequately protected at work.

These are first responders. We ought to make sure that our first responders are protected,” Goldson said.

Personal protective equipment like face masks are scarce across the country and are going first to hospitals, Pinto explained. The school system has always had gloves and are waiting for thermometers and more masks to arrive.

Goldson pushed for hazard pay for those involved in the food distribution efforts. He said that he plans to submit a resolution to that effect at the next meeting.

Tracey said that she and her staff have done their best to follow social distancing rules and take care of school employees.

We’re out there every day. I believe if the ship goes down, the captain goes down too,” she said.

Mayor Justin Elicker added that he has been impressed that the school food distribution efforts have gone so smoothly and safely, with families maintaining distance from one another. He said that he has already heard many concerns from families about the fewer pick-up days still being too many.

Pinto said that he would look again into whether the school system can condense the pick-up days further. Tracey reiterated that she is open to ideas about how to make the system safer.

Correction: An earlier version of this article said that the mayor is also considering dropping the meal distribution schedule to one day a week. The mayor told the Independent that is not true, he thinks the three-day-a-week schedule is the right number at this time.

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