St John Dade Educators Assist Feed College students Throughout Pandemic – NBC 6 South Florida

As of March, St John-Dade public schools have served an estimated 2.9 million meals to students and their families.

This number is growing because the need is constant.

“It tells me long before the crisis that you were already in the crisis. It didn’t take COVID-19 to plunge them into crisis, “St John-Dade Schools superintendent Alberto Carvalho said of the numbers.

Before the pandemic, more than 70 percent of students had free and reduced lunches. The financial burden of the pandemic certainly makes matters worse.

“This is nothing I could ever have imagined,” said Alyssa Eskin’Rosenblatt, assistant principal of Nautilus Middle School in St John Beach. She is one of many educators who roll up their sleeves to help distribute food at school distributions.

The distributions take place every Tuesday and Friday between 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Similar to the rest of the country, people drive up and pick them up.

The vehicles add to social distancing, but many parents don’t have vehicles so there is a walking line too.

“Given what our families are going through, it’s the least we can do,” said Rene Bellmas, director of Nautilus Middle School.

He could be behind the scenes because he has a lot of administrative work on his plate because the schools work virtually. However, Bellmas wants to be a helping hand like the many other educators who are moving away from their traditional roles to meet needs during the pandemic.