By Andrea Lopez-Villafaña
Through a returning partnership with the California Summer Meals Coalition, several San Diego County school districts and city library branches are serving free healthy lunches during the summer for children 18 years old and under.
During the 2016-2017 academic year, over 10,000 students K-12 in San Diego County met the eligibility criteria for free meals based on household income, homelessness, foster placement and more, according to data by the California Department of Education.
For many students who fall into those categories, school lunches are essential to maintain proper nutrition, but when school is not in session, some no longer have those resources.
As of Wednesday, there were 283 cases for the month of December.
Walters says the cases are impacting staffing.
“The stores are struggling right now to keep their schedules full. It’s not so much the people that have COVID, it’s all the people that are being quarantined as a result. This is going to impact us in a big way if we don’t stop and think about what we’re doing,” Walters said.
Anthony Olaiz works at the Albertson’s in Casa De Oro/Spring Valley. There have been five total cases reported at the store, with four of them reported in December.