Initial data suggests the program helps. In the 2021-22 school year, student resiliency scores in the district rose, on average, nearly 17%. Meanwhile, more than 1,300 families received food from the store for free.
Student-run food pantry within high school teaches teens skills
By: Scripps National
and last updated 2021-02-03 12:31:24-05
Food insecurity continues to be a big issue during the pandemic. More than 23 million households sometimes or often didn t have enough to eat during part of January, according to the latest numbers from a U.S. Census Bureau survey.
Compare that to before the pandemic. Nearly 14 million households experienced food insecurity at some point in 2019, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
A faith-based nonprofit in Texas has come up with a unique way to help that has taken off in part because of the pandemic, and the idea is now getting interest from around the world.
CBS News
School s food bank teaches students life lessons: This is a way to feed people with dignity
Last Updated Mar 1, 2021 7:09 PM EST
Sanger, Texas It was an innovation born out of desperation during the coronavirus pandemic: A food bank run like a grocery store inside of a school. The organizers said it s a way to give students life lessons in retail and respect. This is a way to feed people with dignity. So if you think about it, if a mom, single mom, is leaving the house and tells the kids, I m gonna go to the food pantry, or, I m gonna go to the grocery store. Which one has more dignity? Going to the grocery store. That s what we have right here. A grocery store, said Paul Juarez, the executive director of First Refuge Ministries in Texas.
Student-run free grocery store helps feed Texas town s hungry
The idea is to provide students with job skills, and at the same time help students, staff and community residents who are in need. Author: LUIS ANDRES HENAO (Associated Press) Published: 11:30 AM EST January 26, 2021 Updated: 11:30 AM EST January 26, 2021
SANGER, Texas Traditional school stores might offer snacks and knickknacks, school gear and notebooks but the one at Linda Tutt High School in Sanger, Texas, has a very different inventory and clientele.
At Linda Tutt you can get everything from produce, milk and eggs to pasta, peanut butter and canned goods to dishwasher soap and laundry detergent. Students and staff can shop there, but on Tuesdays, the store is open to the community.