Staff photo by Fritz Busch Sleepy Eye Bus Service driver “Whitey” Helget loads packaged meals on a bus at Sleepy Eye Public School Friday. On Thursday, the District 84 food service prepared 466 meals that were delivered to city and rural students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

SLEEPY EYE — School bus drivers aren’t getting up as early in the morning now as they did when school was in session, but school food service staff are still rising early to prepare bagged lunches and breakfasts to go for all students in grades K-12 in the Sleepy Eye, plus home-schooled students and daycare children.

“It’s a significantly higher number of meals to prepare now since schools closed Wednesday (due to the coronavirus pandemic),” said Sleepy Eye Public School Food Service Director Abby Grove.

“We used to prepare 375 lunches and about 250 breakfast meals a day. On Thursday, we prepared 466 lunches and breakfasts and 462 on Friday,” Grove said. “This is a huge change. It’s uncharted territory. School paraprofessionals are helping food service staff with it.”

While Sleepy Eye Bus Service drivers don’t have to rise before the sun on school days, a handful of the bus drivers load bags of breakfast and lunch meals and deliver them late in the morning. Most deliveries are in town and continue from about 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Breakfasts vary but may include bagels, yogurt and string cheese. Lunches consist of cold deli sandwiches or chicken, bacon and ranch wraps.

“The thanks from the community has been overwhelming,” Grove said. “Everybody has been so grateful. It’s really nice.”

To get on the school breakfast and lunch list, people are asked to text Grove at 507-822-1777.

Breakfast and lunch food bags can also be picked up with curbside service at the elementary school front door from 11 a.m. to noon. Curbside pickup promotes personal health and social distancing.

Meals are free to all students and children, even if they don’t qualify for free and reduced-cost school meals.

“The school district is pleased by the number of students we are able to provide a nutritional meal every day,” said District 84 Superintendent John Cselovszki. “We still encourage families that are not currently receiving the free meal to sign up. Our food service staff and several support staff doing a wonderful job preparing the food as well as the Sleepy Bus Service taking care of delivery. We appreciate everyone’s efforts.”

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, 11.2 million children are classified as “food insecure” living in a household that may trade-off paying for important items for other necessities – and either receive free or discounted meals at school.

(Fritz Busch can be emailed at fbusch@nujournal.com).