Community Pantry at GHS: Meeting the Students Where They Are

At Greenwich High School, a Community Pantry was established last fall to help meet the need of students and their families.

Of course there is a food pantry right up the road at Neighbor to Neighbor, but PTA volunteers Maureen Harper and Jennett Leal said it’s all part of meeting the students where they are.

Ms Harper and Ms Leal said the GHS PTA joined and expanded an effort started by Folsom House administrator Andrew Byrne and assistant dean Laura Boyd called the “Folsom Care Closet.”

They explained that Folsom House staff initially helped 40 students identified through Filling in the Blanks.

On Fridays bags get filled with two breakfasts and two lunches a student can take home to last for the weekend.

Harper and Leal, who run the teacher appreciation committee, recalled asking teachers for feedback last fall about what the PTA could do to help them.

At the time, they said the PTA didn’t even know GHS had a pantry out of Folsom House, and that staff had learned quickly that there were many more students they could help.

Leal and Harper also learned the teachers were often paying out of their pockets for food for students to bring home.

“Teachers started buying stuff for the kids,” Harper said. “They identified a need for even more.”

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“We felt it was a natural fit for the PTA to have initiatives to benefit the community and didn’t want the teachers to do it on their own,” Leal said. “And we wanted it to be sustainable.”

In the process, the PTA set up a link for anyone in the community to make donations online.

“Raising funds is important because nothing gets wasted that way,” Harper said. “The PTA has shoppers who buy exactly what the kids want.”

The shoppers turn to places Shoprite, Amazon and dollar stores, which is both cost effective and efficient given the pantry does not have a refrigerator and they can purchase what they know will be used immediately.

Leal said that with the fundraising, donations enable the PTA to buy fresh produce and the items that families need.

“We also have a generous anonymous donor,” Harper said. “He kicked it off with a pallet of lentils, spaghetti, black beans and rice. The donor also connected us to the Food Bank of Lower Fairfield County. I call them on Monday and tell them what we need and they deliver on Fridays. The donor pays for most of the fresh items.”

Mr. Byrne gives up his office on Fridays, and Harper and Leal wheel out racks of food and hygiene products from storage. They also add fresh produce. In time for April break there were apples, plantains, potatoes, lemons, oranges, pears, tomatoes, bananas and onions.

“If he didn’t do this, we wouldn’t have a pantry,” Harper said, gesturing to Mr. Byrne’s office converted into a food pantry.

On his part, Mr. Byrne said he didn’t mind finding another place in the building to work on Fridays.

“They’re very invested,” Leal said of Mr. Byrne and Ms Boyd. “It started organically – we’re happy to help expand it.”

Along the way some tweaks have been made.

Harper and Leal explained that cans of food are heavy for students to carry home. Instead, items like bags of dry black beans and rice are preferable.

“We figured that out pretty quickly, ” Leal said. “The kids prioritized their choices. Also, a bag of beans goes further.”

“They take what they’re used to seeing at home. Food is cultural,” Leal noted as she gestured to a box of plantains, which are a nutritious and staple food in Latin America.

Indeed, the school’s international night features dishes from dozens of countries and has become a popular tradition.

Beyond their coordination with the Food Bank of Lower Fairfield County, Leal and Harper said there are times when Neighbor to Neighbor will have extra quantities of a perishable item and reach out to the GHS community pantry volunteers to share. In return, when the GHS pantry has extra perishables, they turn to Neighbor to Neighbor.

“They have been great mentors,” Harper said.

Recently schools including Old Greenwich School and North Mianus School have partnered with the GHS Community Pantry with food drives, as has the Junior League of Greenwich. Acacia Lodge No. 85 and Greenwich United Way have also raised funds for the effort at GHS, and several local food companies have donated items directly to the pantry.

“We have about 100 students on the list and see about 70 every Friday,” Harper explained. “It gets crowded in here at 2:10pm on Fridays.”

Just before spring break at GHS, Mr. Byrne said he believes there is even more need among students and their families.

“For some of our students, their last meal could be lunch at school on Friday,” he said. “This has been a game changer for our students.”

At GHS about 20% of students – about 600 – qualify for free and reduced lunch, though students do not have to qualify to use the community pantry in Folsom House.

Gesturing to Leal and Harper, Byrne added, “These two are really filling a need the students can benefit from.”

While the program is thriving, Leal and Harper said they wished there were a way to connect to the students over the summer. And of course, it would be ideal if the pantry wasn’t limited to Fridays were at 2:10pm the room is crowded with students.

“It would be nice to spread it out over the week,” Harper said.

“Our wish is to have a dedicated room so that the kids could come in more than once a week and we don’t have to roll the carts in and out of storage,” Leal said.

“What keeps me up at night is that while there are 100 kids now – there are probably 400 kids who could benefit and I worry they may go hungry,” Byrne said.

“Word of mouth has been amazing and the community has been so responsive and generous,” Harper said.

“It restores your faith in the community,” Leal said.

Anyone wishing to partner or connect with the PTA on the Community Pantry can email Maureen Harper at vp.programs.services@GHSPTA.org

Anyone wishing to donate may use the link here.

The PTA uses donated funds to buy food and supplies for the GHS Pantry that will serve students in need.