Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
cx student pantry bag
cx student pantry
Teacher Altaira Bogle pulls out some items from the latest Catalyst Church delivery of bagged items to be delivered to school children to have food for the weekend.
High school can be a stressful time for teens who have to balance study and work.
“Food should be the last thing they should worry about,” said Altaira Bogle, Colfax High School teacher.
The reality is there are students who do not have enough food when they get home from school. Bogle is leading a program in which those students receive additional food provided by the school’s own annual food drive.
“Just that one drive stocks the food pantry for a year,” she noted.
Students going hungry is a subject Bogle knows all too well.
“I was a student that struggled with getting food when I was in high school,” she said. The oldest of three children with divorced parents, Bogle recounted she was 10 when she realized the younger ones needed to eat more than she did.
If it was known a student did not have food, a plain peanut butter and jelly sandwich was provided. The sandwich option announced to everyone that student did not have food.
To forego the experience, Altaira skipped lunch saying she was not hungry and would eat when she got home, although she didn’t.
Bogle said no one should feel hungry or shamed like she did.
“I don’t ever want there to be a reason for them not to come and get food,” she said.
Before starting the school’s food pantry program, she was already handing out food to some students. She noted a lot of high schoolers by their senior year are pretty much on their own with bills and jobs. The school did a food drive, but everything collected went to the community food pantry.
Then the FCCLA decided it wanted to do a long-term service project, and Bogle, who is the advisor for the club, brought up the student food pantry idea. Then the food stayed in-house and the student food drive started feeding its own students.
“The food pantry is a backpack program,” Bogle noted. Nondescript backpacks are loaded with enough food to make it from Friday evening to Monday morning. The students “swoop in,” grab their bags and leave, then return the empty bags Monday. Many of them that have to work through the weekend just take the bag with them to work.”
The program ran one year for just the high school and expanded to Jennings Elementary School this school year. Bogle talked to the principal about it and found a need, then presented the idea to the teachers.
“They were all on board,” she said.
Anonymity is one of the keys of the program,―especially at the high school level. The FCCLA officers help fill the bags for the weekend, but that is the extent of their part. High schoolers pick up their own bags from Bogle’s room. Bogle takes food bags over to Jennings Elementary where the teachers give them to the students.
At the elementary level the students are not as discreet about the assistance. Bogle noted the younger ones like to open their bags in class and eagerly look through them, excited by what they find each week.
That extra food for the weekend is not a trifle; it makes a difference for the students. When the program expanded to JES, teachers would tell Bogle they did not realize the need and how much having that food had changed the students’ attitudes.
Bogle said it is surprising to hear in a small town where everyone is supposed to know everything about their neighbors, people are not aware of the need, but it makes sense as a lack of food is not something that gets talked about. The need is not always due to socioeconomic status, sometimes its a lost job or unexpected expenses.
“Life happens,” she said. “It takes a village and this is one of those things.”
The student pantry does get a little help from Catalyst Church which fills any gaps and, in collaboration with the Colfax Food Pantry, provides fresh produce and bread items which do not store as well as Ramen noodles and canned goods. A delivery of individual bags from Catalyst Thursday included a juice box, snack bar and an individually-wrapped bagel.
Bogle also provides extra snack bags for students in athletics so they can meet the additional nutritional needs. She wants the students to be involved and engaged in the sports if they desire. The pantry also helps those students who profess a desire to participate in a sport but lack the resources. Things like shoes, warm-up gear and mini snack bags are in demand for those students.
This year, people have been great about donating things like jackets, shoes, socks and ties to help the students out. At Christmas time an anonymous donor made it possible for the pantry to include a WalMart gift card in each of the bags.
Already Bogle has had some instances where the family’s situation has changed and the students do not need the extra food any more.
She sees the program expanding as more learn about the available assistance. She plans to send a survey out to all parents, so there may be more need discovered from those results.
With the pantry cupboards stocked with Ramen, mac and cheese and canned beans, the biggest continuing need is for snack items for the weekend bags and sports. Anyone interested in helping can contact Bogle at the high school or by email: [email protected].
A look at the Colfax school food pantry shows a lot of Ramen and mac and cheese, but getting low on pudding.
Jana Mathia is a reporter at the Whitman County Gazette.
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