More than 1,000 Vancouver Public Schools students are homeless. About 12,000 kids — half of the district’s students — qualify for free- or reduced-price lunch, a federal indicator of poverty.
Those sobering statistics were recited by Steve Webb, superintendent of Vancouver Public Schools. Speaking about increasing poverty and its effects on Vancouver schools, Webb addressed a full house at the annual fundraising luncheon of the Foundation for Vancouver Public Schools Friday at the Vancouver Hilton.
“If a child is hungry, it impacts her ability to learn. If a child doesn’t know where he’s sleeping tonight, it impacts his ability to learn,” Webb said.
Webb spoke about the importance of meeting children’s basic needs so they can do well in school — and in life. That’s where the foundation steps in to lend a hand.
The nonprofit provides basic needs — food, clothing and other items through the principal’s checkbook program, the district’s Family-Community Resource Centers and a mobile unit. It also provides health services, after-school enrichment programs, early learning initiatives and mentoring programs.
Webb and the district have been recognized nationally for their community school model. That model is played out at 16 school-based Family-Community Resource Centers and a mobile resource van aimed at supplying basic needs to kids who need shoes, a warm coat or food to fill their bellies.
“One of my enduring childhood memories is hunger,” Webb said. He spoke frankly about growing up in rural Pierce County where, even though his dad worked, his family “lived paycheck to paycheck trying to make ends meet while living at the poverty line.”
He remembers his mother regularly sending him or one of his siblings to a neighbor to borrow a loaf of bread so the kids could eat breakfast before school.
When he was in high school, Webb didn’t even consider attending college. Neither his parents nor his grandparents had even graduated from high school.
“College wasn’t in the picture. I didn’t have a single conversation with my parents about college,” he said.
He considered only two options: the work world or the military.
But then Jay Reifel, his high school assistant principal, asked him: “Webb, what are you going to do with your life?”
Webb said: “That simple question changed the course of my life.”
Reifel became his mentor and shepherded Webb through the college application process. He went to the University of Puget Sound and worked almost full time as a line cook and waiter to pay his way.
Webb invited Reifel to the podium and thanked him for believing in him and encouraging him to go to college. He added that the foundation’s popular Lunch Buddy program matches adult mentors with elementary students to encourage kids to reach for their dreams.
