Changes in the ways schools are operating this year, due to the pandemic could make it harder to get food to kids in need.

With some schools in Centre County expected to have in-person instruction only some days in a week, and some students learning online this year, the Centre County YMCA Food Program says there’s challenges finding ways to get them food.

There’s also kids in rural parts.

“Our biggest hurdle is going to be reaching these children in a lot of the outline areas, that are still in need of food, when they’re not in school,” Mel Curtis, Anti-Hunger Director for the YMCA of Centre County, said.

Some kids won’t be going to school on Fridays now, which is when YMCA would hand out meals for the backpack program,

“The last day of school in normal circumstances would be a Friday, they would get a backpack full of food, which could contain two breakfasts, two lunch, two dinners and two snacks,” Curtis, said.

Curtis, says not as many volunteers are being allowed to go into the schools to pack backpacks, and they’re losing a lot of volunteers.

“Some of them are going back to college, some of them are teachers and they’re going back into the school setting,” Curtis, said. “We get a tremendous amount of people that are retired that volunteer that have done backpacks in the past and I’m not too sure that they’re going to be willing to come out.”

He says they’re trying to find organizations like churches that have the space and volunteers needed to pack food for students.