Harns Marsh Middle partners with Harry Chapin Food Bank to help students

A Lehigh Acres middle school is making sure its students don’t have to worry about where their next meal is coming from on the weekends.

Harns Marsh Middle School opened a new food storage and distribution center with the Harry Chapin Food Bank.

School social workers will identify students in need and let their families know there’s food available on Fridays to get them through the weekend. The principal told WINK News that students and staff worked hard to make this food distribution possible.

Before Justin Cid started high school, he went to Harns Marsh. He returned on Friday with his mom to help out.

“This year, give us a really great opportunity to give more food to our family better,” said Cid.

Partnering with the Harry Chapin Food Bank, the school transformed a room into a food distribution center.

“And it’s so important to do right now it’s so important for so many working families with kids to have access to enough food so that their kids can sit still and learn and develop the way they need to. And it’s just so many hungry kids,” said Harry Chapin Food Bank president and CEO Richard Leber.

Harns Marsh Middle School will have the fifteenth pantry inside a Lee County school.

Cid and his brothers live with their mom and dad and see how hard it is for families to make ends meet.

“We just moved out here last year,” said Cid. “So it’s gonna be pretty difficult to come up with money for food with a new house.”

The goal is to serve between 150 and 175 families each week. The school serves kids before they leave for the day, then reopen after dismissal to assist staff members.