The Care Closet started in 2018 and has been able to be maintained through donations by the community for the past few years. Recently, the Care Closet has received a grant that has allowed us to purchase even more food items for the kids who are needing the take-home bags. This program at the Royalton Elementary and Middle/High School allows us to send home snacks, lunch meals, and evening meals for weekends. All of the meals that are being sent home are able to be made by the students alone. The goal of the Care Closet is to provide meals and snacks to any students who have shared with staff that they are in need of extra food support at home. Our mission is to reduce hunger, therefore allowing students to focus on learning while at school. When students come to school hungry, this impacts their ability to concentrate, participate, and to learn during class time.
Initially, The Royalton Education Foundation provided us with approximately $600 worth of food to prepare the take-home bags with. The weekend bags provide two breakfast meals, three evening meals, snacks, vegetables, fruit, and three beverages. The addition of the $1,500 grant through the Royalton Education Foundation will allow us to add more meals to the bags to provide to the students throughout the entire weekend.
Any monetary donations and/or grants that we receive allow us to continue supporting our students who are experiencing food insecurities. As of the 23-24 school year, we are giving roughly 6-10 take-home bags weekly to our students.