In the poorest county, in Americ a's poorest state, a virus hits home: 'Hunger is rampant'
In county where every child qualifies for free school meals, a superintendent embarks on a project – driving 6,000 meals a day
On the cracked country roads of Lexington, deep in the Mississippi delta, an empty yellow school bus drives slowly, making life-sustaining drop offs on the way.
Here, in the poorest county, in America’s poorest state, the coronavirus has yet to ravage the jurisdiction with infection. There has been one recorded Covid-19 death in the county, Clinton Cobbins, Lexington’s first African American mayor. But even now the coronavirus still poses a serious threat to life.
In Holmes county consolidated – the school district to which Lexington belongs – every single child qualifies for free school meals, a marker of pervasive poverty. For many, said superintendent Dr James L Henderson, breakfast and lunch at school are the only nutritious meals a student will eat in a day. For a few, they are the only meals.
When the coronavirus pandemic led to statewide school closures, Henderson, who was born in the county, left for most of his adult life, but returned in 2018 to assume his position, was left with a significant dilemma: how to feed the 3,000 children under his authority.
Many children in this rural district come from households too poor to afford a car. So the superintendent embarked on an improvised project, driving 6,000 meals a day out across the county in a small fleet of 70 school buses, dropping each packet off at a stop along the route.
“We absolutely see this as a matter of life and death,” he said. “We have to do it on behalf of our children. It’s just that simple. Families are suffering here.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/06/in-the-poorest-county-in-americas-poorest-state-a-virus-hits-home-hunger-is-rampant
= new reply since forum marked as read
I’m relieved that the meals are still being delivered.
Much of our own media would not want to offend the powers that be.
Mississippi Food Network
Link: https://www.msfoodnet.org/
440 W. Beatty Street
PO Box 411
Jackson, MS 39205
601.973.7080
Chief Executive: Charles H Beady
Every $1 helps provide 6 meals.
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Feeding America has a full four-star rating on Charity Navigator:
Link: https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=5271
Mission
KY............
