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School lunch catering company seeks empty parking lots to distribute meals

Posted at 8:07 PM, Apr 21, 2020
and last updated 2020-04-22 09:50:55-04

TUCSON, Ariz. - A school lunch catering company is looking for empty school, church, and community center parking lots where they can distribute free school breakfast and lunch meals.

During the school year, Nutrition One caters school lunches to different schools throughout southern Arizona.

“We cater to schools during the school year and then we cater to churches, parks, apartment complexes, YMCA’s, boys and girls clubs during the summer," said Julia Schroyer-Sims, the co-owner and CEO of Nutrition One.

But, now that schools, and churches are closed and empty, Nutrition One is shifting to providing meals in empty lots.

“We can serve the meals. The only thing we need is safe sites. Safe, visible sites for people to see," said Schroyer-Sims.

In Tucson, Nutrition One has been able to set up tents at nine different locations including the Jewish Community Center, a handful of churches, and YMCA's.

The problem Nutrition One is running into is throughout those nine sites staff have been able to distribute roughly 500 meals a day, when they have the ability and supplies to distribute a whole lot more.

"We can do approximately 4,500 to 5,000 more meals, daily," said Schroyer-Sims.

Schroyer-Sims said she wants to get as many meals out as possible, and in order to do that, she'd love churches and schools to reach out and allow her staff to distribute from their location.

“I have staff down there that would love to stay working during this crisis and I know there’s community down there that need the meals," she said.

If you run a church, a school or a community center with a parking lot that could be used to distribute free meals by Nutrition One, please contact AZDDInspire or Nutrition One.