George Washington Carver
College and Career Academy
School opens its own food pantry to
feed those in the 38109 ZIP code
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- A Shelby County alternative school unveiled a special room that will help the hungry on Thursday.
It's in the old ROTC building at George Washington Carver College and Career Academy.
"The only meals some of our students get are breakfast from us and also lunch. Besides that, a lot of our students aren't eating at home," said Principal Dr. James Suggs.
The pantry will feed students and their families at the 14 schools in the 38109 ZIP code in southwest Memphis, as well as anyone else in the neighborhood in need.
It will be run by students in Project STAND. It's an intervention program for kids who've been in the juvenile justice system to prepare them for a career or college.
"We want also not only give back as service, but teach our kids job ready skills which includes inventory management, customer service and warehousing," said Tarol Clements, the Project STAND manager.
Building Blocks mentoring program will help oversee the pantry.
The Mid-South Food Bank is thrilled about the new pantry.
"We have a refrigerator here and a freezer, so they will be able to receive retail meat we receive in donations. They will also have canned goods with high nutrition level. This isn't just ramen and snacks," said Lakeisha Edwards with the Mid-South Food Bank.
About 51,000 children in Shelby County face hunger. The pantry is expected to reach hundreds of them.
The pantry will be open the second and fourth Wednesday of every month.
School opens a food pantry
GWCCCA Food Pantry
Mid-South Food Bank Opens Pantry At George Washington Carver College and Career Academy
Alarming numbers show out of the 100,000 students in Shelby County Schools more than 21,000 don't know from where their next meal will come. The Mid-South Food Bank hoping to help change that.
They are adding a new healthy school pantry at George Washington Carver College and Career Academy.
The pantry will be filled thanks to donations from several organizations including Kroger. Food will be distributed twice a month.
Organizers say it’s just one small step to help dozens of students and families in need.
This is the second pantry of its kind for SCS in four years. The other is housed at Bolton High School.
Some kids here don't know what a peach looks like. Can this school pantry help change that?
It's no surprise that some Memphis youths don't know what a fresh peach looks like.
Chances are that's a lesson their parents can't afford.
That's because in a city with the nation's second highest child poverty rate, paying close to $2 for a pound of fresh peaches - which amounts to about two large or three medium peaches - doesn't make much economic sense when that money will buy two or three cans of diced peaches.
That reality, one that fuels the childhood obesity epidemic here, is apparently showing up in the pediatric obesity program at Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center and University of Tennessee Health Science Center that Dr. Joan Han operates.
Han and Nichole Reed, a dietitian who works with the program, recently told a State of the State's Health roundtable here that some kids here are so used to processed fruits and vegetables that they have trouble recognizing some of them in their natural form.
Yet Han and Reed's experiences underscore why the Mid-South Food Bank's newest food pantry opened in the right place for youths to learn what certain fruits and vegetables look like.
The food pantry at George Washington Carver College and Career Academy will not only supply
canned foods but will distribute fresh produce and include a garden for growing vegetables.
The food bank recently opened its first school food pantry in Shelby County at George Washington Carver College and Career Academy. The pantry called the Healthy Food Pantry, not only will supply canned foods, but will distribute fresh produce and include a garden for growing vegetables.
Kroger will donate food to the pantry, which will be operated by youths in Project STAND, a Shelby County School juvenile justice re-entry program, and youths involved in the school's Building Blocks Mentoring Program.
"We have fresh produce here," said Stephon Smallwood, founder, and president of the mentoring program. "We have a refrigerator here that's state of the art...we'll have all the pillars of the food groups.
"And we'll be serving a whole zip code, not just the school."
About that zip code: Nearly 45 percent of children in 38109 were living below poverty level in 2016, according to census data. Fourteen schools are also in that zip code, said Tarol Page Clements, Project STAND manager.
Dr. Tarol Clements, Project STAND manager, talks about the new food pantry at George Washington Carver College and Career Academy during its grand opening. The pantry is the first school food pantry that the Mid-South Food Bank has opened in Shelby County. The pantry, called the Healthy Food Pantry, not only will supply canned foods, but will distribute fresh produce and include a garden for growing vegetables.
"We have a garden with field peas and okra out there, and we have options for storing fresh fruit," said Clements, who said the pantry, which will distribute food twice a week, should be able to help as many as 135 families.
The youths in Project STAND will also benefit from the work experience by getting a chance to earn certificates in warehouse management and customer service, Clements said.
But when you consider how poverty feeds obesity by denying many children the chance to learn what some fruits and vegetables look like, the pantry has the potential to provide something more enduring.
It can provide the kind of education that can make them more conscious about their health; the kind that their parents would love to give to them but because their income forces them to prioritize convenience over health.
While the Healthy Food Pantry at Carver won't solve the structural issues behind Shelby County's deep poverty, it will at least give poor parents and students access to the fresh food that they need to stop their health from becoming a casualty of that poverty.
And so that they can learn to recognize - and enjoy - more types of fruits that come off a tree and not just out of a can.
