Families receiving meal delivery in the Wright City R-II School District may notice some unfamiliar faces in familiar attire dropping off food at their doorstep.

Beginning last Friday, 10 members of the Missouri National Guard started helping with dispensing meals to children around the district. This came in response to an inquiry to districts across the state, to help in the relief effort of COVID-19.

“We were contacted by both the health department and DESE (Department of Secondary and Elementary Education) to see if we had an interest,” said R-II Superintendent Dr. David Buck. “We saw this as an opportunity to be able to move our custodians from helping with meals to back into the buildings to work on deep cleaning for when our buildings reopen.”

Originally offered 50 personnel, Buck said the importance was having just enough support to place custodial staff back in the buildings, especially given the updates on the reopening of businesses communicated by Gov. Mike Parson on Monday.

“We don’t know exactly when we’ll have students back in the building, but we want to be prepared for that time when it comes,” said Buck.

Currently the National Guard members are helping load meals onto buses and are being dispatched on the meal routes with the greatest needs. Buck said the National Guard deployed from Dexter, Mo., and are being housed in St. Peters. R-II is one of 10 districts across the state engaging the support of the National Guard.

“We’re extremely grateful, not only for their service but also for them sacrificing their time to come all the way up here,” said Buck. “They’re young and strong, which is helpful in lifting and loading boxes of food, so that’s helpful as well.”

As of Monday, Wright City had dispersed 52,286 meals through the first 24 days of meal delivery.

Warren County R-III was also offered the service but has opted to use it as an alternate if its current system in place needs support.

“What we suggested was that we would like their services if we were to need them,” said R-III Superintendent Dr. Gregg Klinginsmith. “They have approved us as a backup district, if for some reason we needed to shut down our meal program.”

Currently, R-III has pulled back dispersing its meals to just Tuesdays, providing families with an entire school week worth of breakfasts and lunches. The latest numbers indicate 900 students receiving food, totaling 7,200 meals per week.

“We decided to pull back to just one day a week to limit our staff’s exposure to the virus,” said Klinginsmith. “There’s also a lot of work that’s going into preparing those meals that happens behind the scenes.”

Meal pickup for R-III takes place in the parking lot behind Daniel Boone Elementary on Tuesdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Families who do not have transportation can arrange for delivery by e-mailing their school principals.