All East Grand Rapids Public School students were affected somehow by the partial lockdown on Monday, Sept. 17.

Especially High School students.

Off campus lunch is a privilege that students tend to take for granted until it is no longer available.

The East Grand Rapids High School staff had to find a way to feed roughly 1,000 students in the course of two hours.

“Mr. Weigel and Mr. Johnston contacted local vendors as soon as we knew we needed to feed students,” Guidance Secretary Carolynne Allaben said.

There was food from D&W, Blimpy, Jet’s Pizza, Rose’s, José Babushka’s, and Jimmy Johns for both fourth and fifth hour lunches.

“They were expeditious in the way they got food to us, they were super supportive,” Principal Craig Weigel said about vendors’ transporting food to the school.

Vendors brought food to the building twice, once for each lunch hour.

Outside food was not the only option for students though, cafeteria food was available too.

“We also offered students the option to eat in the cafeteria, and Mr. Duba put together whatever food we had there,” Allaben said.

Though there was food to feed the enormous amount of students, the process would have been complete chaos if not for all the help staff provided.

“Teachers who had fourth hour lunch helped during fourth hour, and fifth hour lunch teachers helped during fifth hour,” Weigel said.

“We had some teachers who maybe had planning time during those two, just anyone who was available,” Allaben said.

Feeding people is never inexpensive, but when trying to provide food for over 1,000 people it can become somewhat costly.

Vendors did offer discounted prices on their food to make feeding such a large amount of people possible.

“We effectively fed 1,000 students plus a number of staff for about three dollars a head,” Weigel said.

Though the day was not what would be defined as a “normal day” at East Grand Rapids High School, the community was able to provide aid when needed to keep students safe and the school functioning.

“I was proud of how our team responded in that moment, I thought they did a really wonderful job,” Weigel said on how everyone worked to make the day run as smooth as possible.