Food Insecurity and After School Enrichment

Hi Friends!

Happy December! I hope you’re all finding some calm during this hectic holiday season. Please let me know if you’re able to come to our next small group meeting on Monday. These meetings are super laid-back and we just chat about whatever is on our minds.

Thank you so much to those who offered to help with the January IntegratedSchools event. If you would like to be on this event committee (either helping before, during, or after), please let me know. I’ll be keeping detailed conversations about the event to a smaller group of interested people, so please add your name to the list if you’re in!

There are so many things going on, but I know the holiday season makes people nuts, so I’ll keep this update short. I have two school-related equity issues for your consideration and I’d love your input and thoughts.

(1) I’ve been working on finding out about local students who are experiencing food insecurity (they can’t count on having food at home). I know that the local food assistance center has a Backpack Buddies program and I’m learning that some schools have parent-run programs. I’ve been trying to coordinate with others in the county who might have knowledge or connections or experience with addressing this issue because it seems to be a need that isn’t being filled in a consistent and sustained way. If any of you have experience at your schools with this, or know of County services that might be available, or know about community partnerships that have been helpful, or anything else that might contribute to getting the right people at the table to discuss this and create a solution, please let me know. I’d love to hear any ideas or connections you think of.

(2) Related to that is after-school enrichment programming. Some schools seem to be finding outside/private funding to support their enrichment programs, especially for those schools with a high population of students from low-income families. Does anyone in the group have experience with what those funding avenues might be and what kind of options school administrators might have for bringing quality after-school enrichment to their students? Grants? Community partnerships? What’s happening/working/not working? I know that Title I funding has been further restricted in recent years to only pay for core-related enrichment (reading, math, science), which really limits schools without significant additional funding available to pay for these programs.

Thank you for considering these questions and for helping me to bring together problem-solvers who are knowledgeable and/or working on these issues.

A few resources from our group members:
(1) The Brookings Institute released a report on “The devaluation of assets in black neighborhoods”.
(2) Integrated Schools shared a video mapping how white and privilege families interact with school integration.
(3) WAMU had a Conversation with Nikole Hannah Jones & Eve Ewing on 1A about The Persistence of Segregated Schools.

Emily
Listen. Amplify. Follow.