Model and Strategy
Hunger saps children of energy and potential, stresses families and diminishes opportunities. The Student Powered Food Access Pilot will provide high-school children the nutrition needed to develop, learn and thrive. It will help their families provide for their basic needs so they may focus on securing a better future.
High school students from poor and low-income households are at a moment in their lives where they are acutely aware of economic pressures faced by their parents. Often, when students need to access food programs, they have feelings of embarrassment, stigma, and isolation. This pilot will work towards eliminating stigma by expanding and building on a field-tested program model.
The pilot will also:
• Support the dignity of students by allowing them to design/adapt the model to their schools;
• Offer students the access and resources to nutritious foods;
• Provide the knowledge and experience for students to plan, market and execute a school-wide pantry.
Impact
The Food Bank seeks to test and refine a high school food pantry model that effectively serves teens and their families. This model will then be replicated beyond the grant period to high schools throughout Alameda County. Creating this model is critical. Surveys and poverty data show teen food insecurity is widespread in Alameda County. Studies also show that teens fear stigma around hunger & actively hide it from peers and adults.
To address the issue of stigma, Food Bank staff will facilitate a project that is student designed and executed; students will be given agency and ownership of the programs that serve them. Hunger surveys show that teens are already active participants in family food acquisition and hunger management strategies, and that they have opinions and ideas about meal programs and how to strengthen them.
The Food Bank has a track record of creating successful school-based food programs. It currently partners with more than 30 sites that serve thousands of elementary aged students and their families. The Food Bank has also developed processes to conduct rigorous evaluations that measure inputs, outputs and outcomes.
Deeply embedding the student’s perspective into the high school food pantry will ensure thousands of local families have the food resources to provide for their basic needs. This will provide families the support needed to help teens secure a better future.
Leadership
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Suzan Bateson
Executive Director
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Artrese Morrison
Director of Programs