Parents and Educators Together, Feeding a Community

By Laura Reidy

My journey began when I joined the George Washington School PTA in White Plains, N. Y., as my oldest son entered kindergarten. Our PTA’s message is simple: Work toward supporting children, parents and educators.

Over the years, I built many relationships with teachers and parents. I was elected to be the PTA’s Spanish bilingual liaison officer, and in that role I partnered with teachers for events such as Family Reading Night, Cherry Tree Press and Family Fitness and Fun, just to name a few. We built a great rapport with each other and our community. It was an incredible experience.

Fast-forward to March 2020 and all our lives came to a halt.

Our schools were closed, and shortly after our students began classes via Zoom. Many of our families were unable to work, and we quickly realized some were struggling more than ever with food insecurity.

George Washington had a small pantry meant to support 35 to 50 families a week. The school principal, Laura Mungin, and I committed to expanding the pantry and enlisted the help of many parents and teachers.

We were able to handle a great amount of food with facilities for distribution and, most importantly, incredible teachers willing to volunteer to package, distribute and deliver it to our families. Within a week, we went from handling a 2,000-pound food delivery to 8,000 pounds. By the third week, we counted 17,000 pounds and then 36,000 pounds of food. That fed approximately 600-650 families.

Because of COVID-19 food pantry guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we were limited to 10 people to handle a task that would normally take 20. Every week, five parents and five teachers would come together for two or three full days to make this happen.

From March 20 to August 28, 2020, we worked side by side to break down pallets, organize food, package bags, distribute and deliver food, and break down cardboard and garbage. This labor-intensive, physical work had teachers volunteering for six- to eight-hour shifts in the sweltering heat while wearing a mask. The teachers and I worked together to identify families in emergency situations, some frantic and scared as they struggled to make ends meet.

I would like to thank the many incredible teachers from George Washington School and Post Road School who volunteered during the height of the pandemic at the GW Pantry. For 23 weeks, they helped make it possible to distribute 25,000-35,000 pounds of food weekly to White Plains families. I am so grateful for their generosity of time, of heart and of love. They gave up precious time and put themselves in harm’s way when we did not know much about COVID-19. I want to thank all the teachers who helped deliver food to folks very sick with COVID-19 and without any other way of getting help to their home.

Republished with permission from AFT Voices.