The Harwood Unified Union School District (HUUSD) lunches for local students who are 18 years old and under is ending this Friday, June 12.
Since schools were closed due to COVID-19 in mid-March, the school district food service staff has been preparing and delivering lunches throughout the week to The Valley and Waterbury. An estimated 150 students in The Valley have been receiving the lunches. Some 450 lunches have been delivered daily to families in the school district.
Rebecca Baruzzi, program director for the Mad River Valley Community Fund, said that there is a plan in place to provide meals for local students throughout the summer.
Meals will be prepared by the Barre School District Food Service and distributed by volunteers at the Congregational Church in Waterbury. The Mad River Valley Food Shelf is organizing volunteers to deliver food to students in need in the Mad River Valley area that are struggling with transportation.
Students in need of a meal from all schools will be able to get free meals in this location, not only Waterbury residents. Meals will be free for all children 18 and under, independent of family income.
Meals will be offered in a curbside-delivery style. The delivery schedule will be Monday, Wednesday and Friday from from 9 to 10 a.m.
The Mad River Valley Interfaith Council, which manages the Mad River Valley Food Shelf, has hired Jess Tompkins as the food shelf’s food equity manager and she will be helping organize lunch volunteers as well as other details.
For Waterbury residents, contact Peter Plagge 802-244-6606, work, or 802-560-4667, mobile. For deliveries in the Mad River Valley, contact the Mad River Valley Food Shelf at 802-496-8853. Deliveries in Waterbury are not available at the time being.
Parents whose children will need meals this summer are asked to fill out this form: https://forms.gle/QGFHU9Hc4TwkUZKY6.
