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FRANKFORT — Over a year after it started as a way to meet the needs of students facing food insecurity, a food pantry at Frankfort High School is still evolving.
“It’s been well received; the students know it is there now,” said Kris Hollenbeck, administrative assistant and student liaison for Frankfort-Elberta Area Schools. “They know that if they’re hungry they can come and get something. Some of our homeless students who may not know where they’re going when they leave the school know they can come grab something at the end of the day.”
The pantry isn’t just for students facing food insecurity at home, but also for students who might have missed a meal due to their busy schedule.
“For whatever reason, maybe they got a late start in the morning and missed breakfast, students can use the pantry,” Hollenbeck said. “It affects education. If you don’t eat and you’re tired, you don’t have the energy to learn. A lot of students just try to push through to lunch.”
Hollenbeck said it was great that teachers have a tool to address student hunger and could send hungry students to her so they can get something to eat and focus on learning.
“We don’t create requirements for using the pantry,” said Jamie Smith, student council adviser and physical education and life skills instructor at Frankfort High School. “The students understand the reason for the pantry; it’s not a free-for-all, but at the same time, if there is a student who came home late and missed dinner the night before but doesn’t think they need the pantry, it is available to them as well.”
Smith said the fact that any students might need the pantry at some point helps break down the stigma of needing food assistance and encourages other students who need help to seek it.
Here’s how you can help the Frankfort High School food pantry.
Monetary donations can be mailed to: Frankfort High School, 534 11th St., Frankfort, MI 49635 with “student food pantry” in the memo.
To find out how to donate non-perishable food, contact Kris Hollenbeck at 231-352-4781 extension 201 or [email protected].
Hollenbeck said a student’s situation at home can change quickly, and those who didn’t need the pantry one day might find themselves in need the next.
“Sometimes circumstances change,” she said. “It’s always open to anyone.”
Elementary expansion
Smith said after a while, it became apparent students were looking to pick up food not just for themselves, but also family members.
“We knew we were reaching elementary students through the pantry,” she said. “Students would ask if they could grab something for their little sister, or (ask) ‘can I get this for my little brother?’ We knew the need was there, but we didn’t know how to reach that.”
Smith said in the past months, they created a “pop-up” food pantry with the help of Tammy Garret, elementary kitchen support.
“She’s seen 30 students consistently,” Smith said. “They know to come to the ‘lunch lady.’ We send them home with snacks, make sure they have breakfast on the weekends. It’s been interesting to see how that is growing and see how we can work with families so we can meet the needs of even our youngest students.”
She also said the elementary pantry allows high school students to focus on their own needs.
“They know we’re also taking care of their siblings,” Smith said.
What’s on the shelves?
What is available at the pantry varies between the high school and elementary school, according to Smith.
“We do offer meal kits, but what moves off our shelves and is most utilized is grab-and-go meals,” Smith said. “Grab-and-go snacks: protein bars, cheese sticks, quick things like microwaveable meals.”
Smith said these options are great for students who are busy with extracurricular activities but don’t have the money to buy a meal.
The pantry also has a lot of breakfast items, including oatmeal cups and Pop-Tarts.
“The elementary school is a little more catered and structured,” Smith said. “They take home two vegetables, they take home two fruit cups, so it is a little bit of a mix of snacks, breakfast stuff and meal supplements.”
The elementary food pantry also watches carefully for allergens.
The food pantry has also provided students with holiday meals, as well as holiday gifts.
“We got to do things like holiday stockings that were stuffed to the brim, like the kinds of things we’d expect to receive during the holidays,” Smith said. “We had some holiday meals.”
Hollenbeck said she recently helped students put an Easter dinner together, and gift cards to grocery stores are sometimes donated.
Community support
Both Hollenbeck and Smith said the community lends a great deal of support to the pantry.
“We have been overwhelmed in regard to the community’s support,” Smith said. “We have churches and business owners that make consistent donations.”
Hollenbeck said people donate items in bulk, such as individual macaroni and cheese cups or microwaveable sandwiches.
“They just drop them off,” she said. “Some come once a month. Some people come once a month and give me $100 for the pantry. We have an account we can use to purchase food, or if there is a specific need, we can go and purchase things specifically for that family we’re working with if we don’t have it in the pantry.”
How it got started
The idea for the food pantry came in the winter of 2021, when COVID-19 was still causing schools to cancel activities, and the student council was looking for a way to help.
“The students were looking for something positive to do,” Smith said. “We lost our dances. We wanted to do something with Snowcoming, how can we get excited for something that is good.”
Smith said the idea started as a snack pantry and an awareness of food insecurity not only in the community, but also within the school’s halls.
Members of the National Honor Society and student council at Frankfort High School helped get the idea off the ground, and continue to help by stocking shelves, accepting donations and taking inventory.
“We did meal kits and the way the community rallied around us was unexpected,” Smith said. “We’ve been really embraced by the community and the students really appreciate it — even the students that don’t utilize it. They have a better understanding of what is going on with their peers.”
While the idea was originally to have meal kits and cooking instructions for students to take home, it became apparent not all students had the ability to cook or had access to working kitchens.
“Students didn’t have access to a full kitchen or maybe they didn’t have everything they needed to prepare a meal,” Smith said. “It was hard to let go of the idea of the meal kits as a health teacher because we wanted them to have balanced and nutritious meals, but we had to meet the students where they were, not where we thought they should be as far as capabilities.”
She said the long-term goal is to have cooking classes where students can learn skills they can use at home if they had the kitchen capability, but the aim of the program was not to add more stress to students’ lives.
More than just food
Both Hollenbeck and Smith said the pantry doesn’t just provide for the nutritional needs of students, but also emotional needs.
“With food insecurity, it is the ability to have something in their bag and know that if they don’t get seconds at dinner or dinner at all when they get home, they can eat,” Smith said. “No matter what, they have something to eat.”
She also said students who are relying on others for a place to stay may not want to ask for more food.
“A lot of students are nervous with their situation because they don’t want to be a burden,” Smith said. “They don’t want to ask for seconds. They don’t want to eat somebody else’s food. They don’t want to make a mess. This allows them to feel like they’re contributing if they bring a meal kit home.”
She also said students who need the food pantry’s help aren’t all homeless or facing food insecurity, but might be in a situation where their parents are working late or have multiple jobs and may not be able to cook meals every evening.
“They might have a pantry that’s stocked, but if they don’t know how to utilize it, we can give them these things they can make easily,” Smith said.
Smith said having the ability to get food for themselves and family members is empowering for students in need.
“Some of these students have a lot of responsibility,” Hollenbeck said. “A lot of them work. They have to help provide for their siblings.”
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