Additional Food Distribution Happens Today for Lafayette Students

As we reported last week, Lafayette Parish students will be able to take part in a food distribution program over the summer provided by Focus Foods.

However, several families showed up at the distribution sites this past Saturday only to be told that some of the food allotment had run out. Those issues reportedly happened at Live Oak Elementary and Acadiana High.

To make amends, Focus Foods say they will hold a one-time emergency meal box distribution today (Mon, June 14) from 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm at the following locations:

Acadiana High School, 315 Rue Du Belier, Lafayette
Alice Boucher Elementary School, 400 Patterson St., Lafayette
Live Oak Elementary, 3020 N. University Ave, Lafayette
Southside High School, 312 Almonaster Rd., Youngsville

So what exactly happened to cause the shortage of meals? According to Jeff Landry, founder and CEO of Focus Foods, only about 20 percent of people who registered for meal boxes actually went to get them in the first couple of weeks. Saturday's turn-out was a lot higher.

Here's the explanation from Landry:

We regret our misunderstanding of the turnout we saw on Saturday – plain and simple. We use every tool at our disposal to anticipate the weekly turnout at each of our distribution centers. On Saturday, we were prepared to serve twice the number of families than we served the previous week, and we still ran short. At least two sites had run out of frozen entrees by 1:00 pm, so we made the decision to shut down and return on Monday with additional complete meal kits. We apologize to the community for this inconvenience, and we will strive to improve our forecasting with this valuable lesson learned.

If you haven't registered yet for the Summer Meal Distribution Program, click here. Normal weekly distributions happen every Saturday from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm at the schools listed above.

Eligibility requirements are as follows: