Parkway Food Pantry Aims To Help Hungry Families During The Holiday Season

With the holidays fast approaching, many families are gearing up for large feasts. However, some families aren’t fortunate enough to afford a traditional feast. Parkway social workers and Northeast Middle students are teaming up to provide meals for those in need. On Oct. 10, Northeast Middle became the home for Parkway’s district-wide food pantry.

The Parkway Food Pantry was pioneered by the district social workers, who were inspired by the work being done in the Rockwood School District.

“Rockwood does this Weekend Backpack Program, which is small pantry that sends food home over the weekend for students in need. We already have some of that going on in our schools here, but we wanted to expand it. So the social workers toured [the pantry] and got ideas. We wanted to expand it larger because we have families that need food at other times, not just on the weekends,” said North social worker Alyssa Herrera.

The social workers, who began cultivating the pantry around fall of 2016, saw a problem with hunger and food insecurity within the Parkway community and wanted to do something to help counteract it.

“Food insecurity is a huge thing and it exists in Parkway. if kids are coming to school hungry, it’s hard to concentrate; hard to learn. So we just thought that because we have such a giving community here why not start to do something for our own kids. Kids are hungry, not just on the weekends and families are in need all the time so we wanted to make something easy for families to access. We believe in doing what we can for our families,” said Herrera.

As the pantry begins to find it’s footing, it will be helping to service only Parkway families, but there are hopes to expand past the Parkway community.

“We’re starting off with Parkway families, but eventually [the pantry] will be available to residents in other districts, not just families that have kids in the district,” said Herrera.

With Thanksgiving coming up next week, the food pantry is sending out Thanksgiving meals to families in need.

“We’re sending them meals consisting of turkey, stuffing, potatoes, cranberry sauce, pie, apples, pears, spaghetti squash, cabbage, and more,” said middle school teacher Jenna Lucas.

The pantry also serves as a hands-on-learning opportunity for students about service. The seventh grade silver team has spent time in the pantry, packaging food and getting it ready for families.

“There’s a lot of kids that need to be aware of what’s happening in the community. They see things on the news, not realizing that there are similar things happening in our community. It’s about building awareness and empathy. We want students to have empathy for all,” said Lucas.

The pantry has been made possible not only by the social workers who were insistent on making the thought a reality, but by those within the community who have donated both their food and time.

“We can always use volunteers, it’s just a matter of coordinating times for who’s going to be here and for what project. Just email foodpantryrequests@parkwayschools.net to express interest in volunteering,” said Herrera.

by Roshae Hemmings, Editor-In-Chief