CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Popular food delivery services like UberEats, GrubHub, and DoorDash are now catching the attention of students who WCNC is told are ordering meals while at school.
It’s all about convenience, but school leaders fear the convenience could compromise safety.
In Wake County, WCNC's sister station WRAL (NBC) said a principal raised concern that they just don’t know who these drivers are -- and they can simply pull up on campus anywhere for students to come to the car.
Parents told NBC Charlotte they have similar worries.
“I probably would veer away from it just to keep people who don’t need to be there not there,” Brittney Johnson said.
But former students shared mixed opinions.
“I used UberEats and I think that could kind of be helpful,” Maggie Bruce said, adding safety is still top of mind. “I think security might be frustrated with random cars and random people coming in and out of schools a lot, and I think that’s where it might be a little messy.”
At Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, the district says there is no current policy in place for school food delivery services, but for now, it’s up to the principal’s discretion.
On Tuesday, the Wake County School Board approved a new school visitor policy involving deliveries on-campus that states:
"Commercial visitors, including but not limited to sales representatives and delivery workers, must report directly to the front office or other area designated by the principal. If the principal or designee grants a commercial visitor access to another part of the school campus, school staff must accompany the visitor at all times, and access should be strictly limited to the purpose of the visit. In addition, sales representatives must comply with the Board policy on Collections and Solicitations."
NBC Charlotte reached out to several of the popular food delivery services to get their comments on delivering to schools, but so far haven’t heard back.