NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) — New Haven students participating in remote learning will start receiving their school meals by school bus.

The idea emerged this week under Superintendent of New Haven public schools Dr. Ilene Tracey and Mayor Justin Elicker.

The mayor says because many students are remote learning, the city of New Haven is not getting the usual funding it needs for school meals to pay for food service employees salaries, therefore they had to think of another way to feed kids and allow people to keep their jobs.

On Friday, a group of lunch ladies in the Elm City presented a petition to the mayor to maintain the school lunch program no matter the challenges it faces.

According to the labor Union Unite Here 217, the National School Lunch Program normally puts out 15,000 meals a day but is now giving out only 2,500.

The mayor said, “New Haven Public Schools has buses that are going out to deliver food to areas where there’s a concentration of young people and that’s a great thing because it’s a resource for the community but it also increases the number of meals we’re providing. So we’re going to get more state funding to help support their salaries in this tough time.”

Jasania Hernandez, a food worker in the New Haven public school system said, “At the end of the day, our main concern is keeping our jobs and feeding our children and that goes hand in hand.”

Under the National School Lunch Program, any child under 18 years of age can receive free school meals in which the federal government will reimburse the school system 100 percent for every meal given out.