Coronavirus In Colorado: 'I Love U Guys Foundation' Switches Focus To Feeding Students In Need

(CBS4) -- Coloradans are working to make sure students in need are able to get the meals they would usually rely on getting from school cafeterias. Emily Keyes' family created the I Love U Guys Foundation after the deadly shooting in Bailey, 14 years ago. Now, the school safety foundation has a new focus.

"Crisis isn't a choice, response is," explained John-Micahel Keyes, the Executive Director of the I Love U Guys Foundation. "And were taking that philosophy."

As classrooms sit empty, school districts across the state are dealing with a new type of crisis. That's making sure students have the supplies they need to learn remotely likely laptops or band equipment, and for many, meals they would normally get at school.

The foundation has used research and data to create the 'Standard Distribution Method.' It's a program that guides school officials and volunteers on how to safely get meals into the hands of families in need, with as little contact as possible.

"We wanted to accomplish a few goals -- one is to protect the staff and the students from contagion," Keyes explained. "But also protect the facility and the workers behind the scene."

Working with first responders, schools and safety professionals, the foundation based this program on the idea of "air gaps." It separates those making food, from those moving it, and those handing out the meals to families.

"We want to make sure there is no contact happening between any of the groups helping out," Keyes said.

He told CBS4, some schools are taking the program even further, by making sure volunteers work in the same shifts every day.

"So if a positive case happens in a shift, it doesn't shut down the entire meal preparation," he explained. "Other shifts, like the food runners, have had no contact so they have not been exposed."

The program also encourages a specific sanitation method. Three days a week, Adams 12 schools use the foundations 'Standard Distribution Method' to hand out lunch to students. They've been able to safely distribute 16,000 meals to students.

The I Love U Guys Foundation has posted their research and program online, to help guide other communities looking for a safe way to help during this crisis.

"We are working on evaluating and evolving our current programs it looking where we can bring her voice at some of the new challenges that are going to be facing our schools and communities," Keyes said.

For more information on their COVID-19 response and the Standard Distribution Method you can visit: https://iloveuguys.org/