Community partners have recently made generous donations of goods, money and time to help make days a little brighter for Polk County Schools students.
With students at home due to restrictions made necessary by the novel coronavirus pandemic, Polk County Schools has been distributing free meals every weekday to all kids 0-18 in the county. These meals are available for pickup each weekday from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. at the four elementary schools in the district.
CVS wanted to make certain local students would receive candy for Easter. So for meals distributed on Good Friday, CVS donated candy to be included in each take-home bag. Polk County Schools’ Linley Foster organized staff members at Stearns Education Center to prepare 1,000 individual packets of candy for students, who also received additional food to carry them through the holiday weekend.
Thermal Belt Outreach Ministry is working with the schools to continue to distribute the weekend Feed-A-Kid bags and additional food boxes provided by the Salvation Army.
Polk County Schools also recently received a donation from Tryon Presbyterian Church to help with the cost of the take-out containers that are being used to send home hot meals. Serving more than 850 meals each day means that Polk County Schools is using almost 5,000 containers a week.
