Thousands of Philadelphia students continue to receive free grab-and-go meals during COVID-19 pandemic

Corey Davis Image
Thursday, March 26, 2020
Philadelphia to distribute meals for students Thursday
Philadelphia to distribute meals for students Thursday

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Thousands of students will be able to receive free grab-and-go meals in Philadelphia today from 9 a.m. to noon.

Families are able to pick up meals on Mondays and Thursdays during the allotted time frame as closures continue due to the coronavirus pandemic.

No I.D. is required for pick up.

Click here for a full list of pick-up locations.

Kids facing the reality of going without breakfast and lunch is a real concern across the city.

During the pick-up times, students and families can receive three breakfast meals and three lunches, which would give them the opportunity to pick up six meals all for free.

There's also an educational element to the distribution this as school district sites will continue to give out the K-12 Learning Guides, and other learning resources.

"Our kids are needy and live in conditions sometimes that are very difficult. What we've done is respond and get meals to kids, along with whatever educational packets we can. And now we're ramping it up with Chromebooks. I think we're doing a lot for our children," said Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney.

The city expects to hand out approximately 60,000 meals along with the efforts to get more Chromebooks for kids as well.

"First thing, we need to do is actually inventory what we already have," said Superintendent William Hite. "We have lots of computers already, that children use as classroom sets, to redistribute to families and the difference is what we want to purchase."

School district officials suggest for parents of students who attend charter schools to check the school website for exact dates and locations.