The Calcasieu Parish School Board’s public feeding sites in Lake Charles and Sulphur were able to accommodate all families in need on Wednesday. The sites closed Wednesday at 1 p.m. having met the needs of the 2400 children it prepared for, Holly Holland, spokeswoman for the district, said.

“We were able to serve more families today. I’m excited about that,” she said of the 21,000 meals that were provided.

Rather than providing 10 meals for the week, Holland said the district distributed the food differently to accommodate for more families. “It was not as many meals per bag. But it was still several days worth.”

Next week is Easter break and the district will not be operating the meal site during the regularly scheduled closure. The next public feeding date has yet to be determined, Holland said.

In the meantime, the district is still working to identify a home delivery meal service for students. Emergency Meals to You a partnership between the Louisiana Department of Education and the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty was originally identified as a supplier but the delay in execution is causing the district to look elsewhere, Holland said.

“We are pursuing a different path for meal deliveries in hopes of getting the program started sooner,” she said.

Under the new program, any Calcasieu Parish School Board student is eligible for home meal delivery.

Interested households should visit www.cpsb.org,click “Coronavirus Information” and “Meal Availability” to sign up.

Families who previously signed up by emailing school.lunch@cpsb.org do not need to re-apply as they will be added automatically, Holland said.

Lake Charles College Prep is still utilizing Emergency Meals to You, Sabrah Kingham, director of education, said. All student addresses have been verified and are currently being processed for meal shipment.

Kingham said they have not received a specific start date yet from the organization but delivery “should be as early as next week.”