Farmington Municipal Schools will provide free packs of seven meals for pick up on Dec. 21 and Dec. 28 during the winter break for families that need support feeding children at home.

“We know there’s a need,” said Renee Lucero, spokeswoman for the school district.

The weeklong meal packs will be available at the Central Kitchen at 305 N. Court Ave., Bluffview Elementary, Tibbetts Middle School and Piedra Vista High School.

After winter break, regular meal pickup and delivery services will reopen Jan. 4.

The free meals have been available for all children ages 1 to 18 since the start of the summer break through funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Children do not have to be enrolled in the school district to pick up a free meal, but Lucero said fewer families are taking advantage of the program than in years past. About 3,000 to 3,500 students pick up free meals each day, out of about 11,000 total students in the district. Compared with the last school year, that is a 50% decrease in the number of students getting free meals.

“We’d always like to see a bigger number,” Lucero said.

With fewer students attending school in-person, access to free meals is not as straightforward as heading to the cafeteria. Elementary schools are open to 50% capacity, with half of their students online. Middle and high school students have also transitioned to online learning, Lucero said.

The school district is working to make meals easily available to students while they are at home by increasing the number of delivery locations and providing the weeklong meal packs for winter break.

The meals are free for all students, regardless of whether students qualified for free lunches or only reduced lunches during normal school years, Lucero said.

If a daily pickup is inconvenient for students or parents, meal packs for five days are available Mondays at the Central Kitchen from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Meal packs for the weekend are also available Fridays.

Students do not need to be present for parents to pick up meals, and the pickup locations offer curbside service.

“Our food workers will stand in the cold, rain and snow and place meal packs directly in the car,” Lucero said.

Each “pack” includes breakfast, lunch and a snack.

Farmington schools will be transitioning to online learning for all students between Nov. 30 and Jan. 19, so the school district expanded the number of delivery locations to make meals easily accessible for students in remote areas.

Meals will be delivered along the regular elementary school bus-stop locations, including routes along:

Bloomfield Highway.South Butler Area, Apache Street in West Farmington.La Plata Highway.Harper Hill Area.Bisti Area.Mall Area, Aztec Highway.Crouch Mesa, Star Heights.Wildflower Area.Specific locations are listed on the Farmington school district’s website.

Meals are dropped off to the locations at 8 a.m. daily.

If there is snow in the morning, the meals will be dropped off at 10 a.m. to allow the roads to clear. But if road conditions are still dangerous at 10 a.m., meal packs will not be delivered that day, Lucero said.