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Aurora Public Schools Serves More Than 8 Million Meals To Families During Pandemic

AURORA, Colo. (CBS4)- More than eight million meals have been handed out by Aurora Public Schools since the start of the pandemic and not just to their students. On Thursday, those representing the school were outside Aurora Central High School to deliver the day's second round of grab-and-go meals to students and adults in the community.

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(credit: Aurora Public Schools)

"It's amazing, it helps out so much with giving my kids healthy food," Monica Barrett said

Barrett and her husband who live in Aurora have a three-year-old and one-year-old.

"Definitely the fruits and vegetables- they gobble up," she said.

The school district expanded its summer meal program to include adults using money raised by the Aurora Schools Foundation.

"Families come by and say, 'Thank you so much for feeding our kids and ourselves,'" Brianda Esquivel said.

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(credit: CBS)

Esquivel is a member of the nutrition services team for Aurora Public Schools. She says being able to provide meals to an entire family made a big difference for a lot of people, especially during the pandemic.

"Just being able to give back to the community has been really nice. We do it for the kids during the year and being able to extend that to the adults has been really nice," she said.

Unfortunately, the money raised is running out and the expanded service will come to an end in August.

Having seen what is a clear need they're sharing their experience with the city in an effort to direct more funds to long-term community groups that focus on food insecurity.

"The need for food is always going to be there and it's a sad reality," Esquivel said.

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(credit: Aurora Public Schools)

There are several community resources in Aurora that can help families in need, they are included some of those below.

LINKS: Aurora Interfaith Community Services | Food Bank of the Rockies | Ansar Food Pantry

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