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In the poorest county, in America's poorest state, a virus hits home: 'Hunger is rampant'
Source: The Guardian
In the poorest county, in America’s poorest state, a virus hits home: 'Hunger is rampant'
In county where every child qualifies for free school meals, a superintendent embarks on a project – driving 6,000 meals a day
by Oliver Laughland in Lexington, Mississippi
Mon 6 Apr 2020 11.00 BST
Last modified on Mon 6 Apr 2020 13.19 BST
On the cracked country roads of Lexington, deep in the Mississippi delta, an empty yellow school bus drives slowly, making life-sustaining drop offs on the way.
Here, in the poorest county, in America’s poorest state, the coronavirus has yet to ravage the jurisdiction with infection. There has been one recorded Covid-19 death in the county, Clinton Cobbins, Lexington’s first African American mayor. But even now the coronavirus still poses a serious threat to life.
In Holmes county consolidated – the school district to which Lexington belongs – every single child qualifies for free school meals, a marker of pervasive poverty. For many, said superintendent Dr James L Henderson, breakfast and lunch at school are the only nutritious meals a student will eat in a day. For a few, they are the only meals.
Many children in this rural district come from households too poor to afford a car. So the superintendent embarked on an improvised project, driving 6,000 meals a day out across the county in a small fleet of 70 school buses, dropping each packet off at a stop along the route.
-snip-
In county where every child qualifies for free school meals, a superintendent embarks on a project – driving 6,000 meals a day
by Oliver Laughland in Lexington, Mississippi
Mon 6 Apr 2020 11.00 BST
Last modified on Mon 6 Apr 2020 13.19 BST
On the cracked country roads of Lexington, deep in the Mississippi delta, an empty yellow school bus drives slowly, making life-sustaining drop offs on the way.
Here, in the poorest county, in America’s poorest state, the coronavirus has yet to ravage the jurisdiction with infection. There has been one recorded Covid-19 death in the county, Clinton Cobbins, Lexington’s first African American mayor. But even now the coronavirus still poses a serious threat to life.
In Holmes county consolidated – the school district to which Lexington belongs – every single child qualifies for free school meals, a marker of pervasive poverty. For many, said superintendent Dr James L Henderson, breakfast and lunch at school are the only nutritious meals a student will eat in a day. For a few, they are the only meals.
Many children in this rural district come from households too poor to afford a car. So the superintendent embarked on an improvised project, driving 6,000 meals a day out across the county in a small fleet of 70 school buses, dropping each packet off at a stop along the route.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/06/in-the-poorest-county-in-americas-poorest-state-a-virus-hits-home-hunger-is-rampant
Robert King, transportation supervisor for Holmes county consolidated school district, delivers school lunches to student Keizarrian Thomas, in Lexington, Mississippi, on 1 April. Photograph: Rory Doyle/The Guardian
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