coronavirus

Rideshare Company Zum Teams With Oakland Unified to Get Meals to Kids

Redwood City-based service shifts from transporting students to delivering food, school materials

NBC Bay Area Meals are packed at Oakland Unified to be delivered to students. (April 16, 2020)

While the Oakland Unified School District has been providing meals for pick up to families each week throughout the coronavirus crisis, not all of those in need have been able to get those meals.

Enter Silicon Valley rideshare service Zum (pronounced zoom).

Drivers with the Redwood City-based company are delivering about 1,000 meals a week to Oakland students. Before the recent school closures, Zum offered services to families who needed rides for their kids to school or activities.

Zum drivers also are delivering Chromebooks, class assignments and other educational materials to students who can’t make it to the pickup sites.

District officials found that getting to the pick-up sites was difficult and unsafe for families where a parent or transportation is not available or in cases where children have special needs or compromised immune systems.

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