Nurses mark 10 years of stocking food pantry for Jeannette City school students

Longstanding support from nurses at Independence Health helps ensure Jeannette City School District students don’t go hungry when they aren’t in school buildings.

The nurses on Tuesday carried cereal, canned soup, fruit cups and other packaged food items into district schools for use in backpacks provided to students before they head home for the weekend. About 100 students participate in the program.

“If anything, I think it’s more of a need now than when it first started,” said Sheri Binda, counselor at the junior/senior high school.

It’s a project that nurses at all three Independence’s hospitals — Greensburg, Latrobe and Frick in Mt. Pleasant — have kept going for 10 years since it first started under the United Way. The task of drumming up donations rotates among nursing units at the three locations, said Wendy Reynolds, a registered nurse at Westmoreland Hospital.

The food donations are then driven to the schools three to four times a year, said Mary Jo Bellush, who also is a nurse at Westmoreland.

“It’s things that kids can prepare on their own,” she said.

The community support is an important factor in a district where 70% of about 930 students are considered economically disadvantaged, according to state data. Pantries in both schools are stocked by donations from community groups, in addition to Independence.

“It’s amazing to just have someone in the community help us,” said Kiaira Jackson, student and family liaison at the elementary/middle school. “It takes a team, it takes all of us.”

Students at both buildings can request weekend backpacks without a parent or guardian’s signature. School officials or other students pack them up.

“There’s definitely students that are known that need the bags every weekend,” Binda said. “The food, especially on the weekends since they aren’t in school to get the meals, it’s very helpful, especially the stuff they can just pop in the microwave.”

“We’re very thankful as a district, as a counselor and I know the students feel the same way, to have the support from the community,” she said.

Junior/senior high school principal Vanessa White said Jeannette City graduates now in the workforce are giving back by donating food for the cause.

“Jeannette’s a small community,” White said. “I like to see the community is giving back to the school and we can work hand-in-hand together.”