Schenectady City School District, NY

District Adapts Quickly to Delivers Meals During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Schenectady City School District is running 28 buses to deliver meals for students.

There are 14 buses stationed at schools and 14 buses running routes to deliver. On each bus there is a driver, a monitor and 2 school staff members. Rubber gloves, masks, disinfectant wipes and the 6-foot rule, as best as possible, are used to ensure there is minimal risk for exposure.

As word has gotten out the number of meals served rose from 200-300 on Monday to 1,600 by Wednesday. There are 10,000 students in the district, so the number is expected to rise even more.

Using Transfinder’s support team Al Valachovica, Transportation Supervisor, Schenectady City School District, created a new source map with all his students, indicated as blue dots, so he could see where the masses of students are located. Working his way from one side of the city to the other, left to right, he created 95 stops.

The buses begin at the schools where meals are being made at 8:00am to load food and are on their routes by 8:45am. When finished they return to the schools so any food not distributed can be brought back. The buses remain at each stop for 15 minutes.

Communication
The district used their On-call system to notify parents of locations where food could be picked up, as well as provided information on the website. Also, handouts have been distributed at the stops to help get the word out to more families.

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