Schools drop off nine days of meals for 190 families

STONINGTON—In two hours on Friday, April 17, nearly a thousand meals in brown boxes landed on driveways in Deer Isle, Stonington and Sedgwick. School staff and volunteers had loaded school buses with enough food to tide over 190 families during spring break and then delivered it to their homes. Community School District Superintendent Chris Elkington personally took eight boxes to four Isle Au Haut families on the mail boat that morning.

- LESLIE LANDRIGAN

The food boxes filled a gap in the school food program during the COVID19 pandemic. Brown’s Bus drivers had been delivering breakfasts and lunches —along with homework assignments—to coolers outside of students’ homes. Government grants paid for those meals, but they wouldn’t cover the nine days of school vacation from April 18 to April 26.

And so Elkington marshaled volunteers, staff, grant money, silent donors, business supporters, and local non-profits for Operation Family Food Box Vacation Support.

The Deer Isle-Stonington school offices called each student’s family and asked if they wanted a food delivery. “Yes,” said 190 families.