No Child Goes Hungry is pleased to support Perryville High School with a $2,000 grant to purchase shelving units and hardware supplies to support the establishment of an on-site food pantry for students in need. The project is a collaboration with the Arkansas Food Bank, which supports the school with pantry food supplies and is the brainchild and heart-warming effort of the school’s 4-H and Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) student organizations.
“Too many students in our schools lack the food they need for proper meals — both in school and at home — and snacks to keep them nourished during the day,” said Perryville High School Vocational Business and Computer Science Teacher Jamie McEwen. “Our program aims to provide food that students can take home for supper and when school is not in session. We want to provide an area in each classroom so that if students have a good rapport with a teacher, they will feel comfortable helping themselves to the food in the pantry.”
A growing number of schools nationwide are instituting on-site food pantries to provide discrete, reliable sources of extra meals and snacks for those students living in a food apartheid.
“I applaud Jamie McEwen’s leadership and the awareness of the realities of food insecurity that their 4-H and FBLA students have at Perryville High School,” said No Child Goes Hungry Founder and Director Kären Rasmussen. “I’m seeing a growing number of school food pantry projects being ideated and managed not just by school faculty and staff but by students who realize their peers need their support. Thank you to all the parents, teachers, and faith-based leaders helping educate the next generation of young people about the realities of food insecurity and develop them into community leaders. Let’s feed some kids!”