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CONTACT:  LISA GARRETT, lgarrett@tctc.edu

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                           5/2/2020

                                                                   (By Lisa Garrett

PENDLETON --- Charity Martin is a self-described extrovert who loves interacting with and helping people in her job at Chastain Road Elementary School and in her community.

That’s why she was one of the first to sign up when the Pickens County School District began offering a new food service option of delivering meals to students who need food while they are homebound during the COVID-19 crisis.

“I didn’t think twice about it,” said Martin, who is a 2019 graduate of Tri-County Technical College’s early care and education program and is the 3K Kindercare director at Chastain Road Elementary School in Liberty.

She is a member of one of the bus delivery teams who, between 9 a.m.  – 2 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, disseminates breakfasts and lunches at schools and churches in Pickens County.

The School District of Pickens County is offering breakfast and lunch for anyone under the age of 18 (and special needs adults up to age 21) on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Meals for two days are served and delivered on Tuesday and Thursday. They serve more than 1,000 – 1,200 meals a day with the five bus routes.

During her shift she and other volunteers load buses with up to 500 meals (breakfast and lunch).  On Mondays they deliver 250 breakfast and lunches.  On Tuesday and Thursdays, it’s a two for two  - they deliver 500 breakfast and lunches.  All meals are prepared by school cafeteria personnel.

The delivery service began in mid-March and will go through the end of the school year in June.

“It’s very fulfilling. It’s a safe way to serve my community and work as a team,” Martin said. 

She enrolled at Tri-County right out of high school and received an associate in arts degree in 2008 and returned nearly a decade later to earn her early care and education degree.  She says both times she attended basically debt free thanks to the LIFE scholarship (the first time) and most recently the generosity of the Abney Foundation and Smith Family scholarships through the College’s Foundation.

 

About Tri-County Technical College

Tri-County Technical College, a public two-year community and technical college serving Anderson, Oconee and Pickens Counties in South Carolina, enrolls more than 9,000 students annually and offers more than 70 major fields of study,

 

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