LOS ANGELES _ California public schools are likely to be closed for the remainder of the school year in response to the escalating spread of coronavirus, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday afternoon.
"I don't want to mislead you," he said to parents and educators during an afternoon news conference.
School districts serving about 85% of the students in California have closed in response to the coronavirus pandemic, including the top 25 largest districts, displacing millions of students.
The announcement comes as the Los Angeles school district on Tuesday was ramping up "grab and go" food services to help feed more than half a million children displaced by the closing of schools due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Starting on Wednesday, parents and students can pick up food at 60 sites scattered throughout the nation's second-largest school district.
"These are not ordinary days, and we know many of our students still need help," said L.A. schools Superintendent Austin Beutner. "So our goal is to help as many as we can."
Teachers in most closed schools are trying to continue instruction through online coursework and extended homework assignments. L.A. Unified also has partnered with PBS SoCal to provide expanded educational programming.
But meeting a critical basic need _ feeding hungry children _ also has been a priority in these first days of closures.
On Tuesday afternoon, Beutner toured the setup at Liechty Middle School near downtown.
Volunteers will provide up to two packaged meals per person between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. starting on Wednesday.
Beutner said no one would be turned away, whether or not they have a connection to the school system.
"Our intent is to serve children, but if adults ask, we will offer and we're going to serve those in need," Beutner.
All the locations are set up for both drive-through and walk-up distribution.
In both lines, the volunteer staff will slide the food across a table toward the person or the open car window, as a method to provide separation or "distancing" between people, and thus reducing the chance for spreading the virus. The tables will be covered each day with disposable liners.
A typical breakfast will consist of individual portion-sized box of cereal, unsweetened apple sauce, milk and a piece of fruit, such as an apple, orange or banana.
A typical lunch might have a turkey and cheese sandwich on a roll, sunflower butter, mango juice, carrots, raisins, milk and a piece of fruit.
"Sunflower butter, that's a new one for me," Beutner said, during his tour of the distribution station. "Healthy breakfast, healthy lunch. It's making me kinda hungry actually."
Organizers don't want the distribution centers themselves to be a vector for transmitting the coronavirus, which is why they are concerned about how people line up to receive food. Each family will be asked to stand about six feet apart as they await their turn.
The school district typically serves more than a million meals a day, Beutner said.
For now, the district will have 400,000 meals available per day, said Dawn Soto, a senior training specialist in the Food Services Division.
