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Working To Keep Kids Fed During Coronavirus

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From public school systems to charitable organizations, a variety of groups are working together to make sure that children facing food insecurity still get healthy meals while schools around the state remain closed.

On March 13, while declaring a state of emergency amid concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Ralph Northam announced the closure of all public schools from March 16 through March 27. Several Central Virginia school districts, including Richmond, Chesterfield, Henrico, Hanover, and Goochland, have since extended the closure into mid-April.

Public schools may be closed, but food insecurity in school-aged children remains a concern, especially within the city of Richmond. Educational institutions play a vital role in providing meals for food-insecure students, and within Richmond Public Schools, over 20 percent of students experience food insecurity at some point during the 2017 school year (the most recent year for which data is available), according to BeHealthyRVA.org. 

In order to ensure that a significant portion of the area’s schoolchildren do not go hungry, the central Virginia community has come together during the coronavirus pandemic to provide for the youth. Here’s what’s happening in various school districts in the area to get meals to kids.

Richmond

Beginning Monday, March 16, Richmond Public Schools began distributing meals to RPS students and their families at 20 different school sites around the city. Food is distributed at these sites Monday through Friday, from 9:30am – 12:30pm. The full list of schools providing food distribution centers can be found below:

  • Armstrong High School, 2300 Cool Ln, Richmond, VA 23223
  • Binford Middle School, 1701 Floyd Ave, Richmond, VA 23220
  • Blackwell Elementary School, 300 East 15th Street, Richmond, VA 23224
  • Boushall Middle School, 3400 Hopkins Rd, Richmond, VA 23234
  • Broad Rock Elementary School, 4615 Ferguson Ln, Richmond, VA 23234
  • Chimborazo Elementary School, 3000 E Marshall St, Richmond, VA 23223
  • Fisher Elementary School, 3701 Garden Rd, Richmond, VA 23235
  • Francis Elementary School, 5146 Snead Rd, Richmond, VA 23224
  • George Mason Elementary School, 813 N 28th St, Richmond, VA 23223
  • Ginter Park Elementary School, 3817 Chamberlayne Ave, Richmond, VA 23227
  • Greene Elementary School, 1745 Catalina Dr, Richmond, VA 23224
  • Henderson Middle School, 4319 Old Brook Rd, Richmond, VA 23227
  • Huguenot High School, 7945 Forest Hill Ave, Richmond, VA 23225
  • Lucille Brown Middle School, 6300 Jahnke Rd, Richmond, VA 23225
  • Miles Jones Elementary School, 200 Beaufont Hills Dr, Richmond, VA 23225
  • MLK Middle School, 1000 Mosby St, Richmond, VA 23223
  • Oak Grove-Bellemeade Elementary School, 2409 Webber Ave, Richmond, VA 23224
  • Reid Elementary School, 1301 Whitehead Rd, Richmond, VA 23225
  • Summer Hill Preschool, 2717 Alexander Ave, Richmond, VA 23234
  • Wythe High School, 4314 Crutchfield St, Richmond, VA 23225

Henrico County

Henrico County Public Schools have followed the same path. Starting Tuesday, March 17, they created a “grab and go” meal distribution plan, allowing students and others under the age of 18 (accompanied by a parent) to pick up free breakfasts and lunches from 11 a.m.-noon on weekdays at eight different sites around the county. These have since grown to 14 different sites, beginning last Thursday. Here is a full list of the sites:

  • Fairfield Middle School, 5121 Nine Mile Road, Henrico, Va. 23223
  • Glen Lea Elementary School, 3909 Austin Ave., Henrico, Va. 23222
  • Hermitage High School, 8301 Hungary Spring Road, Henrico, Va. 23228
  • Highland Springs Elementary School, 600 Pleasant St., Highland Springs, Va. 23075
  • Quioccasin Middle School, 9400 Quioccasin Road, Henrico, Va. 23238
  • Henrico Volunteer Rescue Squad 31, 5301 Huntsman Road, Sandston, Va. 23150
  • Campus of Virginia Randolph, 2204 Mountain Road, Glen Allen, Va. 23060
  • Henrico High School, 302 Azalea Ave., Henrico, Va. 23227
  • Longan Elementary School, 9200 Mapleview Ave., Henrico, Va. 23294
  • Montrose Elementary School, 2820 Williamsburg Road, Henrico, Va. 23231
  • Ratcliffe Elementary School, 2901 Thalen St., Henrico, Va. 23223
  • Ridge Elementary School, 8910 Three Chopt Road, Henrico, Va. 23229
  • Sandston Elementary School, 7 Naglee Ave., Sandston, Va. 23150

Chesterfield County

Chesterfield County Public Schools has also established a free meal distribution program for students. A lunch and the next morning’s breakfast are provided on a first-come, first-served basis. Student and a parent or guardian must both be present to pick up meals. Meals are available between 11am-12pm at 33 different locations; for the full list, click here.

Hanover County

Hanover County Public Schools began distributing pre-packaged lunch kits to children aged 18 or younger on Monday, March 16. Lunch kits are served on a first-come first-served basis between 11am and 1pm Monday through Friday while supplies last at John M. Gandy Elementary School, located at 201 Archie Cannon Drive in Ashland, and Mechanicsville Elementary School, located at 7425 Mechanicsville Elementary Drive in Mechanicsville.

School systems aren’t the only ones pitching in, though. Indian restaurant India K’ Raja, which is located in the West End, offered to provide free lunch buffet to students during the initial closure period. Of course, since then, due to limits on public gatherings, India K’Raja has, like many restaurants, moved to takeout and delivery orders only. Give them a call at (804)965-6345 to find out if the program is still in place.

The Chesterfield Food Bank will also provide free meals to students through a drive-thru service operating on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4pm-6:30pm at their Chesterfield location, located at 12211 Iron Bridge Road.

During the coronavirus outbreak, Powhatan-based nonprofit Backpacks of Love have held true to their mission of ensuring access to food for kids in Powhatan, Buckingham, Cumberland, Goochland, Amelia, Henrico, and Chesterfield counties, working with the Powhatan County School Board to get students a week’s worth of food as school closings began, and coordinating deliveries of two weeks of additional food to Powhatan students. They’re working to do more, and are in need of donations — to find out how you can help, go to their website.

Ledbury has also established a fund called Together Forward, which donates a meal to Building a Better RPS and Henrico County Public Schools for every $100 spent. Ledbury CEO Paul Trible noted that since shopping for new clothes isn’t a priority right now, this is a way to do so while also contributing positively to the current efforts.

If you’re in a position to volunteer to help with any of these efforts, please consider doing so — all of these organizations need help to achieve their goals of keeping kids fed while school remains closed indefinitely.

Top Photo by U.S. Department of Agriculture – Rachael Ray Windy City Harvest Lunch, Public Domain, via Wikimedia

NAACP Sues Hanover County Over Confederate School Names

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The Hanover County chapter of the NAACP is suing the county and its school board over the names of two schools named after Confederate leaders. 

The lawsuit states that the names of the schools — Lee-Davis High School and Stonewall Jackson Middle School — violate African American students’ protection under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. The NAACP believes the names also violate students’ First Amendment protection from “compelled speech.” For example, the lawsuit suggests that wearing uniforms donning the schools’ names and mascots forces students to engage in speech they do not approve of or agree with. Lee-Davis’ mascot is the “Confederates,” and Stonewall Jackson’s mascot is the “Rebels.”

Lee-Davis is named after General Robert E. Lee and Confederate President Jefferson Davis. The school did not fully integrate until 1969, a full decade after it first opened. The NAACP claims that naming both schools after Confederate figures “told every African American student that s/he was not welcome in Hanover County.”

In 2018, Hanover’s school board members voted 5-2 against changing the names of the schools. In June, Marla Coleman — one of the two members who voted in favor of changing the schools’ names — was removed from her position on the board. The supervisor who refrained from renewing Coleman’s role on the school board told the Richmond Times Dispatch that Coleman’s vote on the name changes had no bearing on the decision to name someone else to the position.

Robert Barnette, President of Hanover NAACP (Photo via Facebook)

The NAACP’s suit comes at a time when numerous schools in Virginia are making decisions to leave Confederate-named schools in the past. At the beginning of 2018, 31 schools in Virginia were named after Confederate figures. By the end of the year, 18 of those schools had changed their names.

Richmond is no stranger to these changes. Last year, the Richmond Public School Board voted to change the name of J.E.B Stuart Elementary School to Barack Obama Elementary School by an 8-1 vote.  

The NAACP first urged Hanover County to change the names of the schools in 1970. The request was made again in 2017. The county’s response was to conduct a survey, which showed a large majority of residents did not want to see the names or mascots of the schools changed.

Robert Barnette, Hanover NAACP president, said the lawsuit was not the desired approach to seeing the proposed changes brought about.

“We felt like they made their decision and they’re just not going to take us seriously,” Barnette told the Washington Post. “We wanted to make sure we had exhausted all options before we went the legal route.”

Of the nearly 2,600 students that attend the two schools, almost 10 percent are African American. Representatives from Hanover County have refused to comment on the impending lawsuit.

Top Photo: Lee-Davis High School, via Facebook

LGBTQ Rights Book Inspires Outrage For Elementary School Parent In Hanover

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Her 7-year-old daughter knows that homosexuality exists now, and she is not happy about it.

In suburban Hanover County, the mother of a second-grader is “outraged” after learning that a book about the LGBTQ civil rights struggle was read to her daughter in class. Yesterday, WRIC’s “8 Investigates” series reported on a complaint from Culley Burleson, who has a 7-year-old daughter currently attending second grade at Henry Clay Elementary School in Ashland.

“I think the topic was very heavy, I think it was inappropriate,” Burleson said in WRIC’s report on the incident.

The book in question? Pride: The Story Of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag, by Rob Sanders and Steven Salerno. To Burleson, the topic was “a little too much for a 7-year-old to understand and grasp.”

Reporter Kerri O’Brien responded with a voiceover as illustrations from the book scrolled by. “It is considered a children’s book, and Amazon calls it [a] best children’s book of the year,” O’Brien says. “But this mom thinks it’s too adult for a classroom of 7-year-olds.”

One of Burleson’s main complaints was that the book “caused her [daughter] to know what homosexuality was.” She was also upset that an illustration in the book showed people protesting Milk, holding signs that said “Gays must go” and “God says no.”

Art by Steven Salerno, from Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag

“That image was enough for my daughter to come home and question why God would hate anyone he created,” Burleson told WRIC’s Kerri O’Brien. “She has been told her entire life God doesn’t hate anyone. Love everyone, if you don’t understand something about someone, pray for them, ask questions.”

Of course, at this point one must ask how Burleson intends to explain some of her fellow Christians to her daughter as she gets older. Indeed, it was only weeks ago that Westboro Baptist Church came to Richmond to protest the existence of Danica Roem. The slogans on their signs said things like “God Still Hates Fags,” and “Fags Doom Nations.” The signs depicted in Sanders and Salerno’s book are mild in comparison.

O’Brien goes on to report that WRIC reached out to Hanover County Schools, and their doing so resulted in Henry Clay Elementary School’s principal sending a letter home to parents, saying that the use of Pride in the classroom “was not vetted through the appropriate process at our school. It is also not an approved part of our curriculum.”

At the end of the segment, O’Brien asked Burleson, “What would you like to see happen here?”

“I want to see Hanover County’s policy changed where parents are aware of what materials are going to be read in the classroom,” Burleson replied.

And so, regardless of how far we’ve come, it seems there are still people out there who consider the existence of the LGBTQ community to be a matter requiring parental guidance, and are able to obtain a platform on local newscasts to air those views.

To the anonymous Hanover County schoolteacher left under the bus by all this, we at GayRVA salute you. Hopefully the day will come when you can tell children that we exist without having reporters call your boss about it.