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How you can help: Salt Lake City schools, Utah AIDS Foundation need cash for food

(AP Photo/Rick Bowmer) Estela Cortes is handed lunch for her children at West High School Thursday, March 19, 2020, in Salt Lake City. During the coronavirus pandemic, the Salt Lake Education Foundation and Salt Lake City School District are working with community partners to provide emergency "grab and go" food boxes to families.

Editor’s note: The Salt Lake Tribune is providing readers free access to critical local stories about the coronavirus during this time of heightened concern. See more coverage here.

Donate: SLC schools’ emergency food boxes

If you want to help people during the coronavirus pandemic, the Salt Lake City School District’s emergency food services need an injection of money.

The district is providing emergency food and hygiene kits for families every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, from 9 a.m. to noon, at its three community learning centers: Rose Park, 1105 W. 1000 North; Liberty, at 1078 S. 300 East; and Glendale, 1388 S. 1340 West (Navajo Street).

Demand for the food kids is outstripping supply, said Yándary Chatwin, the district’s spokeswoman. Last Friday, the Glendale site ran out of boxes quickly, and at Rose Park, “the line [of cars] went all the way to Redwood Road,” about six blocks away, she said.

The district has received food from the Utah Food Bank and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Bishops’ Storehouse, she said. But still, the district needs more.

Donations of cash are being taken online, via the Salt Lake Education Foundation’s website, saltlakeeducationfoundation.org. Find the donation page, and click “Emergency Relief Fund” from the Designation menu on the online form.

The district normally also takes donations of goods, Chatwin said — but for now, to prevent the spread of coronavirus, only money donations are being taken. Also, using cash ensures the district can buy the goods it needs.

Meanwhile, the district is changing the format for its Meals for Students program. Starting Monday, it will no longer be serving breakfast in the morning. Instead, combination breakfast and lunch meals will be distributed, Mondays through Fridays, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (or longer, if demand requires).

Each combo will include a sack lunch for that day and a sack breakfast to refrigerate for the next day.

The Meals for Students program is underway at 20 schools in the Salt Lake City district. Go to the district’s website, slcschools.org, for a list of locations.

Donate: Utah AIDS Coalition’s food bank

The Utah AIDS Coalition is seeking cash donations to keep its food bank in stock.

The foundation provides around 34,000 meals a year to Utahns living with or affected by HIV/AIDS — allowing the foundation’s clients to focus on staying healthy. That effort is especially important with the spread of COVID-19, officials at the foundation report.

“With your support we can provide all the items needed to nourish a healthy life,” Brandy Romero, the foundation’s supportive services coordinator, said in an email plea for donations.

Cash donations will be matched, the email said.

For more information, or to donate, go to UtahAIDS.org, and click on the “Donate” button in the upper right corner.

Do you know of a way Utahns can help? Send tips to spmeans@sltrib.com.