NEW LONDON, Conn. — For nearly two months local school districts have been providing meals for students during this quarantine. Now one of those districts partnering with a local business to try and help streamline this process.
School districts have had to get creative about how they continue to serve students who rely on those free or reduced-price meals during a regular school day.
New London School District realized early on that they needed to find a better way to keep the milk they were giving to these families cold, that’s when Wade’s Dairy came in.
“So when we started to figure out how we were going to serve meals to the community, one of the components that we need to offer is milk. We need tons and tons and tons of it, we need 200 cases over the course of a week, and we don’t have anywhere to store it. So I called Wade’s and asked if they had any ideas as to how we would be able to store it, and they offered up their milk truck,” said Sam Wilson, School Nutrition Director.
With that milk truck came a driver. Awilda Miranda, who over the course of the past few weeks has been building a strong bond with many of these community members, at a time when in-person interactions are limited.
“ It has touched me, made me see things a lot different. I wasn’t expecting this when I did my first day, but as I kept coming and seeing the people and seeing how much they appreciated it, it really touched my heart. I called them, I was almost crying I said thank you so much for me to be able To experience this,” said Miranda.
Now Awilda along with the New London public schools staff helping to provide families in their communities with essential food items, a half gallon of milk and a quick conversation.