WOODFORD COUNTY, Ky. — It’s a school program that is still going at full speed even after the COVID-19 pandemic has closed the classroom doors.

Courtney Quire is the food service director for Woodford County Public Schools and she and her staff are helping their community in a big way.

"Every Monday we hand out bags with seven breakfasts and seven lunches for each child. If a household has 10 children, the household gets 10 bags. First week, we started out with about 4,000 meals, and now we're averaging about 17,000 meals a week. So, it's growing and growing."

Every week these food service workers prepare and package meals in record numbers to ensure that no child goes hungry during these trying times.

Patricia O'Man is the food service manager at the school and she says the program is for any child.

"Anyone from this community or any community can come here, whether they're in the public-school system or if they're homeschooled it's for any child 18 and under to come and get meals, seven breakfasts and seven lunches."

It has become a weekly ritual, food service staff gathering to prepare and package up large bags of food. Quire says each bag contains enough food to feed one child two meals per day Monday through Sunday.  

"We knew that kids were still going to need meals and we would still need to be able to feed them. It helps with all of the families right now experiencing unemployment, and all of the hardships that have come with this pandemic, being able to have the foods that the kids are used to during the school year, when we're out has to give them some sort of comfort."

Most of the meal bags are loaded up on to busses and taken to regional locations for distribution. Many families choose to pick up their meal bags through a no contact drive-thru at the school, a system set in place to ensure that both workers and families remain safe.

"Sometimes they come through in the cars and we get to wave at them from a distance of course," said O'Man. "And it's wonderful to get to feed them and know that they're okay for that week. We know they're fed."

Quire adds it's peace of mind for all the people who have come together for the children and Woodford County and beyond.

"It has just blown my mind the way our people have come together, the community, the volunteers, all of my staff who've been able to continue to work, just to help feed kids."

O'Man says the work isn't only happening in Woodford County, but across the state.

"I just would like to thank all the cafeteria workers around the state. I know what they're going through and the challenges that they have had to face in changing from feeding daily to feeding weekly and what those challenges have been."

Challenges faced and met with every meal served. In Woodford County,