GOOD HOPE — The Cullman County School System served its first free meals Wednesday to help support families during the statewide school closure due to COVID-19.

Cafeteria workers, administrators, teachers and community volunteers gathered at seven schools across Cullman County to prepare thousands of free meals that were available to any child who lives in the county, and they will return this week and next to make sure children have the food they need while they are out of school.

More meals will be served this Friday and on March 23, March 25 and March 27 from 10 a.m. to noon from Fairview High School, Good Hope High School, Hanceville High School, Harmony School, Holly Pond High School, Vinemont High School and West Point High School.

Cullman County Schools Superintendent Shane Barnette came by Good Hope High School Wednesday morning to help hand out meals, and said the meals are being served to help out families who are having to deal with the unexpected school closures.

“We know that a lot of families did not plan to have all these kids at home,” he said. “And we’ve got food in all of our lunchrooms.”

Because the meals are being served on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, every person who comes to one of the participating schools will get two breakfasts and two lunches for each child they have at home, which should give them enough to eat until the next time meals are served, Barnette said.

“It’s any child 18 and under, whether they go to our school system or not,” he said.

Barnette said the system sent out a survey to parents around the county to gauge how many meals they would need to serve, and the survey’s response indicated that around 6,500 meals would be needed, so there will be at least that many meals ready to serve across the seven locations in the county this Friday and next week.

Good Hope Lunchroom Manager Debra Scott said her cafeteria prepared meals for 500 children, which means that 2,000 meals had to be prepared to make sure they had enough food for the next two days.

“We’re just trying to make sure the kids have food,” she said.

Scott also made sure to thank all of the teachers and volunteers who came out to prepare those meals.

“We’ve always had a good relationship with the teachers here,” she said. “It feels good to work side-by-side with them, and it feels good for the superintendent to get in here and have a part too.”

Twelve-month employees in the system are still working on an as-needed basis during the closure, but many of the people who came out to hand out meals on Wednesday were teachers or other volunteers who just wanted to lend a hand, Barnette said.

“It warms my heart see these all these people come out and work to help others,” he said. “We live in a wonderful community where a lot of people put others first.”

The county school system’s spring break was already scheduled for March 30 through April 3, so no meals will be served during that time, Barnette said.

Schools across the state are currently set to return on April 6, but if that changes in the next few weeks, meals will be served on the same schedule for the week of April 6-10 and any further meals after that will be evaluated, he said.

Barnette said all of the Cullman County School System’s announcements about the free meals or any other coronavirus developments can be found at the system’s social media pages on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, along with its website, ccboe.org.