PARIS — Some restaurants in the Oxford Hills have announced they will provide free lunches to children not in school the next two weeks to stop the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Katherine Mitchell, owner of Luchador Tacos at 3 Nichol St. in Paris, is no stranger to feeding children. The mother said often sends food from Luchador to school when her children forget lunch. She’s offering free quesadillas for school children in need of a meal.

“We live in our neighborhood and know a lot of the parents . . . the kids in the community, a lot of them visit us frequently,” she said. “Even with my own kids, they’ll forget a lunch time and call the shop and order a quesadilla . . . these are very stressful times. People are wondering how they’re going to make ends meet . . . if they want something besides a peanut butter and jelly, we’ll be there.”

If the restaurant moves to takeout, Mitchell said the offer will still apply.

Mitchell anticipates that Maine will soon follow New Hampshire and ban eat-in restaurants, permitting only takeout orders. She said that’s not a problem for Luchador: the shop began as a food truck across from the Oxford County buildings on Western Avenue.

“We still encourage people, if they need a meal for their kids, to let us know . . . we’ll hand it through the window,” she said.

“Difficult times fall on a lot of people. It’s really difficult to make choices . . . they (parents) can come by and have their kid get fed,” Mitchell said.

Ryan Ricci, owner of 290 Maine Street in Norway, said that while schools are doing a fantastic job delivering meals to students, he sees offering free meals to children as an important way to give back to the community.

“Honestly, with everything that’s going on, we want to give back as much as we can,” he said. “What the schools are doing now is phenomenal. We want to make an avenue so if you are out and you need food you can get something.”

Ricci said he also sees a dine-in shutdown looming. 290 has a takeout menu, but they do the vast majority of their sales through sit-down diners. Still, they’re preparing for a takeout-only restaurant scene.

“It could ramp up a little bit,” Ricci said, or, with everything going on, if it dies out, we have to play that by ear. We’re going to close no matter what tomorrow and go to takeout . . . we’re going to see what happens. If no one’s ordering takeout, then it comes to what do we need to do,” he said.

But, Ricci added, if 290 does close, all salvageable food products will be donated to food pantries, schools, or any other organization in need.

Tracie Hill, owner of Melbys Market and Eatery on  Route 35 in North Waterford, is also living the stay-at-home life. She has a 16-year-old and a 3-year-old both at home, and she said she understands how hard unexpected schedule changes can effect a family.

“A lot of people think that parents use school as a day care,” she said. “When you have kids you start thinking of your life revolving around them. You go to work, you try to work around their schedules. When you budget, you budget your food to go around their schedule; ‘they’re not home during the day, they don’t need their snacks or lunch.’ We’re all stressed as it is; why make people more stressed?”

Hill’s solution is to offer bagged lunches to any parent who calls or comes in and says they are in need of food. So far, Hill said she’s made nine bagged lunches.

On the other end of the age spectrum, Market Square Restaurant on Route 26 in South Paris announced this week that it would deliver free meals to any elderly people in need. Manager Spencer Gilbert said the Facebook post has been shared 300 times, and the demand for such a service is high.

“We weren’t really expecting so many,” he said Tuesday. “Our phone has been ringing off the hook today. We’re so glad that people are using it.”

They restaurant has delivered meals to about 40 people.

Gilbert said his clientele is about 60% older people, and Market Square didn’t see much help available to that particularly vulnerable  population.

“We just want to make sure they have what they need. They’ve been very grateful,” Gilbert said.

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