After reports surfaced that truckers are working long hours with limited food options, closed rest areas, and shuttered bathrooms, one public high school in the Portland area has answered the need by opening their facility to be used as a truck stop for our nation’s road warriors. KOIN reported:
Woodland High School has been temporarily repurposed as a rest area for truck drivers who are traveling along Interstate-5 in Washington.
The campus, located at 1500 Dike Access Road, was left empty due to closures brought on by the coronavirus outbreak. Students were sent home on March 17 and told that school would not resume at least until April 24.
Woodland resident Eric Hansen came up with the idea to make the campus available to truckers after reading a story about their current plight. Truck stops and restaurants have closed so finding a restroom can be a huge challenge for drivers. Hansen took his idea to the Woodland School District, which agreed to open the campus to truckers on Tuesday at noon. It intends to keep the facility available around the clock for drivers.
The amenities open to the drivers include showers, bathrooms, hot meals provided by local restaurants, and parking lots for resting. The local Starbucks is providing coffee and snacks. With the entire nation suffering food and supply shortages, the truck drivers of America need to be a top priority and this community is doing a great job. They have reached out for food trucks to come and service the drivers as well.
This could be a great model for all public high schools across the nation near interstates to get some restaurants back to work by selling to the trucking community while providing a solution to the major problem of truckers traveling with limited options. Necessity breeds ingenuity and invention, and the ways Americans are adapting to this new reality are inspiring.
Megan Fox is the author of “Believe Evidence; The Death of Due Process from Salome to #MeToo,” and host of The Fringe podcast. Follow on Twitter @MeganFoxWriter
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