GARDEN CITY, Idaho — While many businesses are closing their doors, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Ada County are staying open at all their locations.
The club says Central District Health is asking them to stay open as long as possible. This way child care needs are met for those who must work.
“We just had a paramedic health worker who has a husband who works in the correctional facilities and they just didn't have options,” Director of Operations for the Ada County clubs Joey Schuler said.
However, they are asking parents to only drop their kids off if they must work.
“We have paramedics, we have fire and police force workers, people who are EMTs. The restaurant industry and we have manufacturing,” Schuler said. “Those people that need to keep our economy moving, they need to report to work, so there needs to be a place for their kids.”
While they're still open, they are keeping the place as clean as possible. The club has instituted an hourly cleaning schedule to clean all surfaces.
“We're sanitizing all contact surfaces, our custodial teams are working just pretty much nonstop doing sanitization as well,” Schuler said.
The club is asking parents to keep kids at home if they are showing symptoms like fever, cough, or shortness of breath. They will be taking the temperature of kids before they are allowed in. If they have a fever, Schuler said the child will not be allowed into the club.
The club is also launching a new service, called “Grab and Go” meal sites. The service will be at three locations:
- Riverfront Park in Garden City (Next to Boys & Girls Clubs of Ada County) E 42nd Street, Garden City
- Meridian Elementary School’s playground 1035 NW 1st Street, Meridian
- Boys & Girls Clubs of Nampa 316 Stampede Drive, Nampa
Starting on Thursday, parents will be able to bring their kids to one of the three locations listed above. The parents will drive up and they will get breakfast and lunch meals for their kid. If the parent has three kids, they will be receiving three of each meal to feed each kid.
This additional service is open to anyone who needs to feed their kids while school is out.
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“It creates a vital need for many families that are not being nourished through the pandemic,” Schuler said.
For Thursday alone, the club is prepping 150 nutritious meals for the site at Garden City. Schuler is asking parents to keep coming back though to keep the program running.
“We really need consistency, so the more people that can come that will actually help us sustain our ability to offer this vital service,” he said.
That service will help people like Lucritia Pirnie and her 9-year-old grandson Julian. Lucritia works for a company that offers cleaning services for offices and her grandson is currently out of school.
“Just right now with everything going on, it’s hard to find supplies sometimes,” she said. “You go to the store and every little bit helps, anywhere you can access resources right now just to take care of these guys.”
The sites will be running from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday.
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