Related: Alternative Pupil Transportation Provider Delivers Meals Curbside to Special-Needs Students
District Installs Oven Inside School Bus to Keep Meals Hot
The Redding (Calif.) School District places the warming oven inside the bus it is using to deliver meals to students who are picking them up at their bus stops. Traveling the route and delivering to all 10 stops takes two-and-a-half hours.

Redding (Calif.) School District installed a warming oven (shown left) inside one of its school buses to keep the food it is delivering to students hot. Photo courtesy Tyson Stenlund

REDDING, Calif. — A school district here has installed a warming oven inside one of its school buses to keep the food it is delivering to students hot, KRCR reports.
The Redding School District has been serving meals to students twice a week since area schools closed in March, according to the news source. It hosts a drive-through food pickup every Monday and Thursday, and bus drivers drop off food at 10 bus stops located throughout the district. At each delivery, they give students three breakfasts and three lunches to help keep them fed throughout the week.
The warming oven helps keep all the meals hot while the bus is traveling to all the stops. Tawny Cowell, the director of nutrition and facilities for the district, told KRCR that because delivering to all the bus stops takes about two-and-a-half hours, “we want to make sure that food is just as good at the last stop as it was at the first stop.” Cowell added that the district is also planning to use the warming oven after the pandemic has ended in future summer food programs.
The district will be reimbursed by the federal government for the cost of the oven, according to the news source, because it is for its food distribution program.
To read the full story, go here.
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