College dining team, YMCA partner to prep meals for K-12 students

As the COVID-19 crisis continues, the dining team at University of Memphis has been hard at work prepping about 8,000 meals each day for local K-12 students while still feeding college students who remain on campus.

The university’s foodservice team, overseen by Chartwells, has so far made upwards of 173,000 boxed lunches for Shelby County Schools, which suspended its meal service in late March after a school nutrition worker tested positive for the coronavirus.

This initiative is being facilitated by YMCA Memphis, which is providing funding and handling distribution of the meals.

“We received a call [on March 24] asking if we could produce 4,000 meals for pickup at 6 a.m. the next morning,” Glendel Coble, resident district manager for Chartwells, said in a statement. “We picked the food up from our provider at 4:30 p.m. and began immediately. We packed the last box lunches at 2:30 a.m. on March 25. Although it was a very long day of work, the team was excited to help our community.”

The lunches being prepared include two sandwich varieties—ham and cheese and turkey and cheese—as well as chips, fruit and juice.

“I am so proud of our partnership with the YMCA and Chartwells,” University of Memphis President M. David Rudd said. “Everyone stepped up at a moment’s notice and has done a remarkable job serving not only our students, but the families of Shelby County during this challenging time.”