Harry Chapin Food Bank to help SWFL food insecure students

A child’s chance for a promising future starts with getting enough to eat. As many as 12,000,000 children in the United States are food insecure which means they don’t know where their next meal is coming from.

In Southwest Florida, the Harry Chapin Food Bank is working with schools this year to expand its school pantry program.

Starting Aug. 8, more than 30 schools in Lee, Charlotte, and Collier Counties will take part.

“How can students concentrate,” said Alex Dworzanski the Harns Marsh Middle School principal. “How can they be academically successful when they’re worried about their next meal?’

“I was one of those students,” said Dworzanski. “When I grew up, my mom had to work two jobs and it was hard for us to make ends meet.”

His staff is turning an unassuming room into a vital part of the school day. School counselors Emmanuel Ovincy and Katherine Gutierrez will make sure students who need it get the food and the school uniforms they need.

Marilyn picks up food every week from Harry Chapin’s mobile food pantry for her family, including a student who will be attending Harns Marsh. She was thrilled to hear about the new school pantry.

Students will get free breakfast and lunch in the school cafeteria and can take what they need from the pantry before they go home.

The students in the zone are me, the students in the zone are my daughter, and I wanna make sure they’re successful and by doing that they shouldn’t have to worry about clothes, they shouldn’t have to worry about food, and their parents should be able to reach out to us and feel comfortable knowing that they don’t have to worry about pride or anything else we’re there for them,” Dworzanski said.

Last year the Harry Chapin Food Bank provided more than 288,000 pounds of food to the school-pantry program, which fed more than 35,000 students.