Here is the story behind Davie High Hunger Fighters:

 

It was exam time in January of 2011 at high school when staff noticed that students who were exempt from exams and didn’t have to come to campus (a possibility at that time) were still eating lunch in the school cafeteria.  

Why were the students there when they do not have to be?  

A few  teachers and administrators knew the answer: these kids were hungry.  At home they may not have had food for the day, but at school they could eat breakfast and lunch at a free or reduced rate.

Immediately the thought of these students not having nutritional assistance at the high school level was concerning to our entire school community.  It became obvious that these students were, indirectly, asking for help. In elementary and middle school food insecure students in our county are helped through ‘backpack’ programs which provided them with food to take home at the end of the week: but no such program existed at the high school level.

Why was there no program at the high school?

Did parents feel able to ask for help?

Were students unwilling to accept help?

 

The answer to all of the questions is NO.  It was clear that a program needed to and could be developed to help these students and their families. 

Hunger Fighters was born.  

The mission of Davie High Hunger Fighters is “to provide nutritional assistance to Davie High students and their families helping to decrease the effects of childhood hunger on education and family stress.”

 

There was a WILL to make change and now it was time to find a WAY.  

The WAY had to be ironed out.  A process was developed to allow for confidential deliveries of food to students doorsteps. Faculty and staff volunteered to participate in weekly deliveries: this way, no students’ identity would be revealed amongst their peers as food insecure (teenagers can sometimes be hard each other when differences are recognized).  

Students are referred by teachers, peers and parents to the program.  Direct messages are also sent home by phone to help create awareness about the program.  .

Different community groups have asked for information and through speaking engagements we were able to increase awareness about Hunger Fighters.  While we called on local churches for assistance, we knew as many aspects as possible needed to be housed on-site at the high school.  A few families provided the initial startup food to be distributed, other families sent in monitary donations, and the school provided a trailer that was climate controlled to store the food. Hunger Fighters soon received a grant from the Davie Community Foundation to begin our work.  

But it was a contact at the Episcopal Church-The Ascension that was the program’s first big break.  The church already had a community food pantry that accessed food though Second  Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina. Other local pantries at Hardison United Methodist and Storehouse for Jesus also expressed an interest in our program  and they were each likewise connected to Second Harvest. . Through these connections we met the food bank’s Regional Outreach Manager, Tracey Cooksey Doss.   

Ms. Cooksey Doss gave an energy to the program that helped it grow and become its own entity.  She helped us navigate the rules and regulations associated with having an ‘Emergency Pantry’ and housing food on-site.  She also pushed for us to become a 501C-3 non-profit agency. A faculty member who had been through the process helped with mentorship in attaining this 501C-3 status:the process took about 3 months.   The non-profit identification was essential: it allowed us to join the Second Harvest Food Bank network and access the food and support they offer. Hunger Fighters recruited community shoppers and volunteers willing to pick up food from Second Harvest Food Bank at their rural delivery site in Thomasville.

Hunger Fighters was operating as an independent entity serving 40 families a week.  Hunger Fighters provides nutritional support any time our students are not at school (Thanksgiving, Christmas break, Spring Break and during the summer) and don’t have access to school meals.   Chestnut Grove United Methodist planted a garden to provide us with seasonal, fresh produce. Our connection with Second Harvest Food Bank helped to create a partnership to pick up reclaimed bakery items from Harris Teeter at Tanglewood three days a week (we use a freezer to hold the bakery items throughout the week).  Second Harvest Food Bank awarded Hunger Fighters with a grant from Proctor and Gamble that provided toilet paper, laundry detergent and tooth paste.

On a weekly basis, we send  family items out more so than individual items (for example, spaghetti and spaghetti sauce, peanut butter and jelly and a loaf of bread, bags of rice, pinto beans, boxes of cereal, boxes of shelf stable milk, cans of vegetables, boxes of macaroni and cheese).  Often hygiene items are provided and specific requests are also answered. When we work with the families, we ensure they have running water, a microwave and a stove.  We also check for food allergies.

Classes at the high school pack the food for the families during the school week, and the students are told how many families are being served for the week and the students are given a list of items to pack for each family-- but the students do not know who they are packing for.  The packed food is then taken to a faculty member to deliver. The provisions are usually delivered to the families on the last school day of each school week so that they can tide the students over the weekend.  

The move to the new high school location required some transitional changes and the high school administration has supported creating a food closet where we store the food.  A new freezer has also been purchased.  

Support from the community continues to grow, particularly from our own Fairy Godmother.  The “Fairy Godmother” has been extraordinary at finding assistance.  She has taken on food drives in her neighborhood and one of her current ventures is trying to create a crowdfunding website so that people can make financial donations. Through these efforts, there is now a plan in the works to create an open pantry at school for students to directly access during the week. 

 

Another part of our expansion has been the creation of a ‘Hunger Fighters’ club here at school for students to participate in. The club helps with putting together food packs and building our program by spreading the word to the community

We are always in need of food and monetary donations, help packing food and help spreading the word in the community. Outreach is always needed as we do not always reach all families in need due to lack of awareness or other obstacles.