The District 300 school pantry assisted the community during the COVID-19 pandemic. | D300 Food Pantry/Facebook
The District 300 school pantry assisted the community during the COVID-19 pandemic. | D300 Food Pantry/Facebook
The Rockridge Board of Education (BOE) during a late May meeting praised the District 300 (D300) Food Pantry for its support of the community during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pantry is a volunteer-run charity dedicated to feeding students and families in need.
Board members also acknowledged the contributions of Aramark, an international distribution company that provides food for District 300.
"The district is delighted to be joined by representatives from Aramark and the D300 Food Pantry and we would like to thank them for their service during the pandemic," Leslie LaMarca, the executive director of the food pantry, said at the BOE meeting.
Aramark provided more than 670,000 breakfasts and 760,000 lunches from March 2020 through April 2021. The company used remote and in-person delivery options.
The D300 food pantry provided approximately 430,000 meals and distributed approximately 350,000 pounds of food within the same time period. The pantry assisted approximately 4,000 families during the pandemic, including approximately 10,000 children and more than 19,000 residents.
The food pantry was established in 2015 in response to the discovery of a food insecurity issue in the local community, according to the organization's website. Volunteers served approximately 80 families per week when the pantry opened in 2016. That number rose to approximately 700 families per week within the third year of operation.
Families are served food throughout the school year and in the summer.
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