Joliet Public Schools District 86 Providing Meals To Children

In addition to providing individualized school remote learning plans for all Joliet Public Schools District 86 students, the District has distributed 143,036 meals to children since Illinois Governor JB Pritzker issued his Executive Order mandating that all public and nonpublic schools close on March 17, 2020. 

“We want to make sure our families have the support they need during this challenging time,” said Joliet Public Schools District 86 Superintendent Dr. Theresa Rouse. 

The District 86 Nutrition Services Department workers prepare the meals and administrators from the District hand out the meals to the families. “Our employees have worked tirelessly to provide some type of normalcy to our families as we navigate through this crisis together,” Dr. Rouse added.  

The Joliet school district will continue to provide free “Grab and Go” meals to any child under the age of 18 years old twice a week during the extended school closure. The meals are available for curbside pick-up at Dirksen, Gompers, Hufford, and Washington Junior High Schools from 10 a.m. until 12 p.m. every Monday and Thursday through the end of May. 

Monday meals include enough food for three breakfasts and three lunches and Thursday meals provide food for two breakfasts and two lunches.  The Monday, May 25th pick-up day will be changed to Tuesday, May 26th, due to the Memorial Day holiday. 

Joliet Public Schools District 86 is the fourth largest elementary school district in the state of Illinois. Nearly 11,000 students from preschool through eighth grade attend one of the district’s 21 schools in the city of Joliet.