The Battle Ground High School security guards spent years opening their office to students, especially those with empty stomachs.
About eight years ago, guards at the high school started bringing in snacks, such as instant ramen and granola bars, to give to students who didn’t have breakfast or weren’t able to get lunch. The guards stopped bringing in food roughly a year ago, after the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 and Smart Snacks in School program of last year required schools to provide healthier food options for students.
Bobbi Passant, a security guard in her 17th year at Battle Ground, said the guards decided to stop bringing in food for the students to follow the new regulations, adding that plenty of other teachers and counselors also had food for students in need.
“We just thought it would be better if we didn’t provide anything,” she said. “That was hard. We still had kids who were hungry.”
As of April 17, hungry Battle Ground students have a new option at the school to get food, thanks to social studies teacher Adam Horn, who helped Battle Ground open its own food pantry for students.
“I stumbled across the idea on the website of another high school in the area,” he said. “I did some research, looked at resources here in Battle Ground High School, and thought we could do that.”
Horn was looking for a project for his administrative internship with the district through Washington State University Vancouver, but after speaking with counselors and hearing about the need for such a program, he envisioned the pantry as something that could stay open at Battle Ground for years.
He brought the idea to school administrators, counselors and teachers, and within about two months, the pantry opened. It was stocked at first through a two-week staff food drive. The pantry also receives weekly donations from Share Vancouver.
Once the pantry was stocked and set up, Horn and others at the school had to identify potential students in need and figure out how to best serve them. Horn said they put word out about the pantry through school announcements, and told counselors and teachers to look out for any students whom they thought might benefit from the pantry.
Horn said school officials thought there would be a need for the pantry after seeing a rise in meal plans at the school. According to the Office of Superintendent of Public Information’s Washington State Report Card, 36.9 percent of Battle Ground High School students received free or reduced-price meals during the 2013-2014 school year, up from 25.2 percent of students in the pre-recession 2006-2007 school year.
So far, about 12 students have used the pantry.
“We know the need is much greater than that,” Horn said. “We have to help kids understand they don’t need to be ashamed they’re using it. Everybody goes through hard times. We’re here to help them.”
Once students are identified as possible recipients of pantry goods, Passant or one of the school’s three other security guards will talk to that student about the pantry and see if he or she is interested in using it. Passant says that 80 percent of students who they’ve talked to about the pantry have given it a try. She said she has one or two students who use the pantry weekly, and other students who visit it once every few weeks or once a month.
“They’re not forced to take part in it. They’re asked,” she said. “Whenever students feel like they want to come in, they can come in. We’re not going back to students. We don’t want to be seen as pushing this on students.”
Guards take students to the pantry when the student is able to go during the day, and they give the students tips on what items to take to put together for a full meal. The food typically is put in the student’s backpack, as they try to be discrete. School administrators use students’ ID numbers instead of names when they sign up for the pantry.
Horn said there were a few reasons the school’s security guards were asked to play such a large part in the pantry.
“They’re out in the hallways a lot every day,” he said. “They have the freedom to pull a student out of class. The guards talk to them. They do a real good job of building connections with kids. It’s one of the strengths of what they do here. They really enjoy the opportunity to work with students whenever they can.”
In addition to the security guards, teachers and counselors, special education students work in the pantry to get work experience. A few times a week, they collect whatever items have been donated, sort them and place them on the shelves. They also check expiration dates on the food items in the pantry.
“Everybody just jumped right in,” Passant said. “The need is definitely there, and it’s something I think every school needs. Every school has kids from families that are in need. It certainly is going to help them with being able to learn. A hungry child is not going to learn at all.”
The pantry not only has a variety of food, but also toiletries. Horn said in the future, he’d like to have clothes available, just one of the changes he hopes to implement after what he called this year’s “pilot run” of the pantry.
The biggest change is he hopes to get more students to use it. One way he hopes to do that is by trying to have it open the same time each day, opposed to opening it whenever a student is brought there. He also hopes on letting more parents know about once school starts back up in the fall.
The pantry won’t stay open over the summer. Horn said a flier was sent home with information about other nearby pantries students and families can use during the summer, and about summer meal programs.
“We’ll get it back up and running in the fall,” Horn said. “At the end of the school year, we’ll get together and talk about improving it, and we’ll make sure it reachers even more students next year.”
