For the second year in a row, Wake County Commissioners are partnering with the Food Shuttle to expand School Pantry access for at-risk teens.
Broughton High School is getting a new and improved School Pantry this year, courtesy of the Food Shuttle and Wake County Commissioners. A new room is dedicated to the pantry. New shelving is stocked with kid-friendly items like pasta & pasta sauce, shelf-stable proteins, mac & cheese packages, and healthy snacks and breakfast items like raisins & granola bars. A new refrigerator is on order and will soon allow students and their families to access fresh apples & oranges, greens, summer squash, potatoes and onions, as well as frozen meats. This is going to make a big difference in the lives of students and their families!
Last year we were contacted by a parent at Broughton. The old pantry was being kept stocked through donations within the school, but they were having trouble meeting an increased need. As students were reassigned during the school year, Broughton suddenly found itself hosting 68 students in transition—a special population in addition to the at-risk students already attending Broughton.
Wake County Schools have universal breakfast access for students, but that was simply not enough. As one teacher noted “when a student is still hungry—even after having eaten breakfast at school—you know that they must have gone to bed hungry the night before.” Nobody can succeed in school and life if they go to bed hungry each night.
This was the tipping point where the old pantry facility would no longer function adequately. Luckily, the Wake County Commissioners made a commitment last year to make sure high school students are nourished and ready to learn! They provided funding that helped support five new Wake County School pantries last school year, as well as funding for an additional three new sites this year.
We are so grateful that our county government supports at-risk youth by helping to ensure that all are fed and ready to succeed. We could not have done it without the support of our Wake County Commissioners.