COMMUNITY CLASSROOM: Teacher needs donations to start food pantry for hungry students

WHITEVILLE, N.C. (WECT) - It’s a problem that plagues schools across the country--hungry children. According to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, 900,000 students in North Carolina rely on meals and snacks served at school for nutrition.

Kathy Butler, a teacher at Williams Township sees evidence of that in her classroom and that’s why she’s working on building a food pantry for her students. She’s hoping to get donations through DonorsChoose, an online charity that helps teachers get funding for school projects.

“Hungry children can not focus properly to perform well in school,” Butler says on her Donors Choose page. “Our goal is to provide our students with foods that they can eat without having to cook them. Microwave dinners, soups, mac and cheese cups, pop tarts, pudding cups, and gummies will help keep them from being hungry on the weekends. We are making a food pantry where they can “shop” for food they like for free.”

Butler needs $496. Once she is fully funded, Donors Choose will purchase the food items and deliver them to the school. Canned soup, fruit cups and microwaveable mac and cheese in bulk are just a few of the items on the list.

If you would like to make a donation, click here.

Copyright 2023 WECT. All rights reserved.