RSD Receives $35,000 Donation To Support Free Meals For Kids

A $35,000 donation from the Albertsons and Safeway Foundation will be used to support Richland School District’s weekly distribution of free meals to all children in the community.

RSD is receiving additional federal funding for the breakfasts and lunches it is making available for all children under the age of 18 while schools are in an online learning format. The contribution will help defray additional costs from those efforts, such as food containers, sacks and thermal packaging.

“We want to do everything we can to support our community during this time and its contributions like these that ensure that we can be there for students and families,” says Dawn Trumbull, the district’s director of nutrition services.

Nutrition services staff are providing weekly meal packets on Fridays to thousands of families at most RSD schools. The program started with providing a breakfast and lunch for every school day in a given week and will expand to include weekend meals on Oct. 2.

The donation specifically came from the Nourishing Neighbors Community Relief Initiative and its Help Feed Families During the Crisis fundraiser. That effort has distributed millions of dollars to schools across the country since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

“We’re proud to support great school districts who are learning in farther during the pandemic to help their students,” says Karl Schroeder, President of the Albertsons-Safeway Seattle Division. “A child’s focus should be on learning, discovering and having fun, not whether they will be able to have lunch today.”