All children under the age of 18 can receive free breakfast and lunch meals since the Chimicum School District received an extension of the USDA Food Service waiver enacted during the pandemic earlier this year.

Meals will be available Monday through Friday from 9 to 11 a.m. through Dec. 18, and are free regardless of income or school enrollment. 

Meals can be picked up at the multi-purpose building, formerly the elementary school gym, at Chimacum Schools.

More than half of the schools’ populations are being homeschooled or learning via Zoom, remotely, while a small percentage are attending in-person. Students are attending school — except for 10- through 12-graders at Chimacum High School — two days a week.

The remainder who opt to attend class in-person, are working off a modified schedule, with entire schools split in half, and then into small groups, or cohorts, of about 15 or fewer students to allow for social distancing and reduce the chance of spreading the coronavirus. The virus has killed more than 2,000 people in Washington as of Monday.

When schools closed in March due to the coronavirus pandemic, bus drivers in Port Townsend and Chimacum school districts changed their games to deliver food to students along their routes.

The YMCA took over meal distribution over the summer, passing out an estimated 2,000 supplemental meals every week; last summer, the organization averaged 130 meals each week.

All students attending in-person classes may receive a free meal when at school and pick up meals on days they are not in school.