Mealtime at the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Westfield will become “Grab & Go” for city students during the Club and school shut-down due to the spread of COVID-19. (THE WESTFIELD NEWS FILE PHOTO)
WESTFIELD – The Boys & Girls Club of Greater Westfield will provide cold dinners for city students for two weeks starting March 17 and will shut down all other operations March 16-27.
Club Chief Advancement Officer Bo Sullivan said Friday that when they learned schools would be closed due to the threat of spreading COVID-19, they stepped up.
“The school department will feed students at Abner Gibbs and Franklin Avenue schools either breakfast or lunch,” said Sullivan. “Those schools meet the eligibility for free breakfast and lunch. We will do a late afternoon Grab & Go cold meal for all students.”
The meal will consist of a sandwich, fruit/vegetable, milk and snack, Sullivan said, which meets the Early Education Care guidelines. The EEC provides funding for the Club meal program.
“This will be similar to our summer food program,” Sullivan said.
What will be different is the distribution. In the summer, meals are provided at various locations throughout the city. Starting Tuesday, the Club will have a drive-thru style service.
“We will be at Westfield Middle School,” he said. “The food will be prepared in the middle school kitchen.”
Residents will drive up, be handed a meal in a bag, and drive away. Sullivan said there will be people directing traffic.
At press time, the details were still being hammered out and a time for pick-up was not established. Sullivan said it would be “late afternoon” and he would provide The Westfield News with times once they were set. Information will also be on the Club website, bgcwestfield.org.
The Club is preparing to serve 400-600 meals, which is the average for the summer meal program. Sullivan said Club leaders just wanted to help its members and all students.
“We have such a good relationship with the school department, we felt this is what we need to do,” he said.
Sullivan said closing the Club along with schools was not an easy decision, but with schools closed to minimize the spread of COVID-19, it made sense. He acknowledged that many families would have difficulty with childcare for the duration of the closing.
“This is going to be a struggle for families,” he said, noting that the Club will be open this weekend for soccer and anyone with questions should call. Staff will be at the facility over the next two weeks performing a deep cleaning of the building.
‘We will do our best to get through this,” he said.
