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Coronavirus News: Paterson School District honors pandemic school volunteers

ByEyewitness News WABC logo

Tuesday, June 2, 2020

Paterson School District honors pandemic school volunteers

Paterson School District officials came together to honor the volunteers who have been feeding students during the pandemic.

PATERSON, New Jersey (WABC) -- Paterson School District officials came together to honor the volunteers who have been feeding students during the pandemic.

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus back in mid-March, the volunteers have been distributing student meals, home instruction packets, and Chromebooks on Mondays and Wednesdays.

The volunteers helped give out student lunches, homework packets, and Chromebooks.

Paterson Public Schools was cited as New Jersey's leader in student meal distribution by a leading education news web site at the end of April.

They opened sites all over Paterson in order to reach every student, about 29,000 total.

What makes it most difficult is that 100 percent of the students qualify for free or reduced breakfast and lunch, so the meals had to be priority one.

Now the district cleared a significant milestone of distributing more than half a million student meals since March 17th.

Superintendent of Schools Eileen F. Shafer and Vice President of the Board of Education Manny Martinez honored the volunteers.

"You guys are truly the embodiment of selflessness, putting the needs of others ahead of your own and doing what's in the best interest of the young people," Martinez said.

"These individuals have stepped up when we needed them the most," Shafer said.

Shafer said that by September every child in the district will have a learning device.