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ELKINS -- Nearly one year ago, students in Randolph County were sent home from school, not knowing they would not return to a full-time schedule for more than 300 days due to the COVID pandemic.
As a team, teachers, administrators and staff employed by Randolph County Schools combined their efforts and creativity to come up with a plan that would ensure students' needs were still being met, despite being away from school.
Director of Child Nutrition and Pre-Kindergarten Services LaDonna Rosencrance -- along with members of her department -- spearheaded several initiatives and partnerships with community groups and organizations to provide meals to students.
Between March 13 , 2020 and Jan. 30, 2021, Rosencrance said 541,856 breakfasts and 545,678 lunches were served to students in Randolph County alone.
"We did everything we could to feed as many kids (as possible)," she said. "We definitely could not do it without everybody pitching in. I mean everybody -- from bus drivers, to secretaries, to the cooks, teachers and custodians. Everybody has come together."
Similar to other counties across the state, Randolph County provided breakfast and lunch to every student throughout the week; these meals included items such as a sandwich, vegetable, fruit, chips and milk or juice.
The United States Department of Agriculture's Team Nutrition recently recognized several schools in the country for their "COVID-19 School Meal Spotlights," including Randolph County Schools.
"Under challenging circumstances during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, school communities have worked tirelessly to ensure children have access to meals," the spotlight reads.
Furthermore, the spotlight referenced a partnership between RCS and Davis & Elkins College that provided meals weekly.
"The college's dining services team prepared the meals. Then, they transported the meals to three school sites in the county, where school nutrition staff and community volunteers distributed the meals to children. The district also collaborated with Randolph County Housing Authority to deliver meals to children who missed pick-up earlier in the week," the spotlight reads.
Debbie Schmidlen, superintendent of schools, praised the RCS Office of Child Nutrition staff for their efforts during a recent board of education meeting. Schmidlen said Rosencrance and her department have been audited 16 times this year, noting each of the audits were "perfect" and "model audits."
"I have wonderful staff and wonderful principals who work very hard to make this happen," Rosencrance said. "This all happened during a pandemic, and we had no (audit) findings -- nothing, they couldn't find anything (wrong)."