Northern Lehigh Superintendent Matthew J. Link thanked Kmart, Weis, Giant, Lehigh Engineering, Northern Lehigh Education Foundation and Joseph Franzone for supporting the district during the shutdown.

During last week’s school board meeting, he said Kmart, Weis and Giant have donated boxes of plastic bags to put the district’s Grab-N-Go meals in, for which the district is averaging about 500 lunches per day.

In addition, Link said Lehigh Engineering donated lumber to the district so it can make the signs coming down the middle school driveway, and that the district will be making some new signs to keep them fresh.

Also, he said the Northern Lehigh Education Foundation donated $1,000 for the district to keep its Backpack Buddies program going to increase meal security for some of its neediest families in the district. Link noted that the meals that are offered in the Grab-N-Go are being funded through the United States Department of Agriculture.

Lastly, Link thanked Franzone and his family, who also donated $1,000 to help the Backpack Buddies program.

“As a whole, our community is really stepping up and helping the school district and helping each other,” he said. “That’s one of the many reasons that I love working in Northern Lehigh School District.”

Board President Gary Fedorcha offered his gratitude to all those who have contributed as well.

“I really want to thank all of the people who are helping with that program,” Fedorcha said. “I do know they are spending lots of time and they’re doing a fantastic job for our children.”

Director Mathias Green asked if it would be possible to draft a letter to thank Franzone for his contribution, to which Link said they are going to do that for everyone who contributed.

Student representative to the board Madison Hoffman, a senior, said that while times are uncertain for everyone, she’s very happy with how things are being taken care of.

Hoffman said her whole family has been getting the free Grab-N-Go lunches, which has been helping them out.

“Overall, I can’t say I’m overly excited to have to finish my senior year online, but I understand why it has to happen and I’m very happy with how everything has been handled,” Hoffman said.

Fellow student representative to the board Aidan Williams said that the whole situation has been hard on everyone, and that it’s been difficult not being in class every day without the immediate help of their teachers.

“I would like to commend all the teachers; they’ve been so gracious with how they’ve reached out to us, and every day they’ve been able to just give us the assignments that we need to do,” Williams said, adding that the Grab-N-Go lunches have been extremely helpful, and that he is “extremely grateful” to the school for that.

Williams said what’s nice about the new style of learning is that students can kind of work around their own schedules, and added that he keeps telling his fellow students to make the most of the current situation that they’re in and they will get through this.