Coronavirus: School meal prep service turns to help most vulnerable in Orange County

ANAHEIM, Calif. (KABC) -- Flexibility and a willingness to serve those in need were the reasons why the co-founder and chief operating officer of Choicelunch said his company was back in business, with his workers back on the line.

Keith Cosbey said his company normally feeds nearly 25,000 kids a day, across 300 schools. But there has been a drastic change since the stay-at-home restrictions hit due to COVID-19.

"All of our schools were closing in the week of March 16, 17, and we were put in the unfortunate position where we needed to lay off a good majority of our employees," Cosbey said.

With the coronavirus outbreak bringing the company's school meal service to a screeching halt, Cosbey turned to helping the homeless community in Orange County.

"We were feeding almost 600 homeless people breakfast, lunch and dinner, seven days a week," Cosbey said.

This was happening in Santa Ana at The Courtyard, Salvation Army and the Fullerton Community Center.

"In situations like this, you just have to figure out what to do, figure out I have food supply, I have ways to get food, I have people that want to work and when you're put in a situation where it comes to a screeching halt you have to find some way to put those people and that food together in a way that still takes care of the public," Cosbey said.

Cosbey invites other organizations looking to help the public through meals to contact Choicelunch at 1-855-GO-LUNCH.