Henrico Schools distributed nearly 25,000 meals by bus during first 2 weeks of school
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Henrico County Public Schools distributed nearly 25,000 meals by bus to 60 stops throughout the county during the first two weeks of school, according to data provided to the Henrico Citizen Tuesday. At one other stop – at the intersection of Pump Road and Castile Road in the Far West End – no one picked up a meal during any of the three days that a bus stopped there.
In addition to offering curbside meal pick-up at every public school in the county, the school system also is delivering meals twice weekly (on Mondays and Wednesdays) by bus, making stops in 30-minute increments at the 61 locations. On Mondays, buses provide lunch for Monday, breakfast and lunch for Tuesday, and breakfast for Wednesday. On Wednesdays, they bring lunch for that day, as well as breakfast and lunch for Thursday and Friday, and breakfast for Monday.
All meals are available at no cost, and no identification is required. Anyone may pick up meals for children and teens 18 and younger, regardless of whether they attend Henrico public schools. The school system will be reimbursed with federal USDA Summer Food Service Program funds for all meals it distributes to those children and teens. (It is not reimbursed for meals that are not distributed, items that must be discarded, or meals for adults or staff members or for the labor required to prepare the meals.)
The most popular bus stop distribution site was the one at Hungary Spring Road and Prestwick Road in the West End, which delivered 1,134 meals during the first three days of stops (Sept. 9, 14 and 16). A stop in the Coventry Gardens apartment complex in Eastern Henrico also witnessed more than 1,000 meals distributed during the same three days; it was the only other stop to eclipse that mark.
At nine other stops, officials distributed between 700 and 948 meals during those three days:
• Eunice Court at Eunice Drive (West End) – 948;
• Old Route 301 at Grammarcy Circle (Northside) – 920;
• Whiteside Road at Bradley Pines Circle (Sandston) – 869;
• Cloisters West (West End) – 824;
• Dry Leaf Lane at Early Forest Circle (Sandston) – 796;
• Fox Rest Drive at Fernwood Street (West End) – 770;
• Almora Avenue at Beth Road (West End) – 762;
• Delmont Street at Winston Street (Northside) – 751;
• Cardinal Road at Cardinal Court (West End) – 704.
In addition to the Canterbury Square stop, other stops at which fewer than 100 meals were claimed included:
• Engel Road/Pollard Drive at West Club Lane (West End) – 18;
• Mountainbrook Drive at Huntsmoor Drive (West End) – 40;
• Betner Road at Betner Court (Sandston) – 54;
• Arbor Creek Drive at Arbor Creek Way (West End) – 64.
The 89 sets of meals (each containing three breakfasts and three lunches) provided at the Coventry Gardens apartments Sept. 16 were the most sets distributed at any single stop on a single day during the first two weeks of school.
In total during the first week of school, officials distributed 6,000 meals by bus and 40,779 at school sites.
That total was a little more than half the number that the school system served during the first week of school in 2019 (89,908).
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