Sheridan Story 2018-19

I’m one of many from Crosstown and some from NENA who volunteer at Keewaydin Middle School putting bags of nonperishable food in students’ backpacks on Friday mornings.   This year the Sheridan Story organization provides not just 1 standard bag of food, but 3: the standard bags, bags with more ethnically appropriate choices, and bags for mobile families (who might have limited ability to cook, so things like dried pasta might not be useful for them).  The bags are color coded so we know which to give to each student.

The number of students who are signed up this year is lower than those who signed up last year, and I recently wondered out loud to Anne Tank, Family Liaison, whether these meals are actually needed.  For example, in one student’s case, he had not taken home his bags for 3 or 4 weeks.  Anne immediately said, YES, they are needed, and that particular family badly needs the food, as they are one of the mobile families (with no permanent home), and the mother is functionally illiterate so Anne can’t send written information to her, but the student has agreed on a plan to get them “home” (wherever home is now).

This seems like a small thing to those of us who probably have enough food in our kitchens right now to live on without going to the grocery store for 2 weeks or more.  But it’s a big thing to the families who need these small bags of food, and it only takes a half hour of our time on a Friday morning while the kids are in class.  I encourage you to join the ranks and sign up if you can.  But if so, you’ll want to make haste --there are only 4 Fridays left until the end of the school year.  Or plan to join us next school year!
by Sheryll Storry