Teachers at a Monroe County High School are doing more than just providing an education. They’re feeding the students’ needs.
Casual Day means more today than just teachers wearing jeans. It means students won’t go hungry.
East Stroudsburg South High School Teacher Michael Healey says, "We do understand that we are an unique community, our community has a significant amount of poverty and students facing disadvantage with their incomes, and I feel as a staff that we are aware of that and really care about the students beyond even their educations."
Each year a call is put out to East Stroudsburg South High School staff to bring in nonperishable food items in exchange for dressing down.
Healey says, "Outpouring of generosity from our staff yearly is incredible, and I think to see it, it’s hard to believe. Every year I don’t think we’ll have much more than we did the year before but then we surpass it."
The food will help restock the Purple Pantry and fill in these empty shelves. Despite a distributor supplying some of the food, we’re told there’s never enough, especially right now.
East Stroudsburg South High School MTSS Coach Kate Lee says, "The need really has been growing. The cost of food, the cost of housing, everything sort of trickles down to what can you afford and unfortunately some families have to make choices. So we like to be able to have this pantry here to be able to sort of take that off of their plates."
The pantry inside the school is available to any student simply by filling out a form on South’s website. Currently over 300 are signed up.
Lee says, "They do come once a week, twice a week. Sometimes we have emergency situations where they will need several days in a row."
One of the items given today really speaks volumes about the need and the hardship some kids are facing at home.
Lee says, "If you are in a situation where you don’t have a full kitchen, you might now have all those extra cooking tools, such as can openers, in order to be able to open all these items."
If you would like to donate food or other essentials just fill out the contact form on South’s website by clicking Purple Pantry.