With a lot of hungry people to feed, Vanguard school steps up to the plate
Hungry people. Lots and lots of hungry people. How are they going to feed their children even after the unemployment pay starts arriving, and how long does it take to get that money coming in, on average? If the family unit was just scraping by before mom and/or dad got laid off, how are they supposed to make it on an unemployment check that’s less than the paycheck, and usually hovers around less than 40 percent of the old take-home pay? Good luck with that.
In the RGV, which continues to have one of the highest poverty rates in the U.S., chronic hunger is the norm for a lot of families. Also, eating nutritious foods is a challenge. Local school districts like charter school Vanguard Academy offer welcome respite for a lot of poor families when they roll out their meals program pretty much year-round these days if you include the early childhood nutrition program. For the older kids, the meals program might go offline the weeks of Spring Break, Thanksgiving, and the two weeks over Christmas and New Year’s, but that’s it. The rest of the year they’re fed by the school district they attend.
What’s going on now, though, is something that’s never before been dropped on the heads of the public education system. Schools, colleges, and universities shut down completely across the country. If you had said that this would happen three months ago, people would have said you were crazy. Three months ago, there were still no reported cases of the new virus in the U.S. Educators still taught; and meals were still being handed out to students, courtesy of state and federal dollars.
Spring Break came and went the week of March 16 th , and things on the school front have never gone back to what they were: normal. It’s already obvious to most people that schools won’t reopen this year, and graduation ceremonies won’t be held. A sad way to end the classes of 2020. The big question remains: what will happen when the next school year is set to start? It’s doubtful the new coronavirus will have gone away by then.
Will parents be willing to risk sending their kids to school if it’s still around, making people sick? Will teachers be willing to teach in classrooms that are full of children, which is the one demographic that seems most likely to be asymptomatic while still spreading the virus. (Do an online search for: “Children spread the virus.”) In other words, when grannie meets the grandson, it’s usually grannie who is risking more. On the other hand, which grannie these days wants to pass a virus on to their grandchild? None of us, except those who have already been diagnosed, or those hospitalized, knows if we are carrying the virus (SARS-CoV-2) or not, or if we’ll develop the respiratory disease, COVID-19. That same interaction exists between the teacher and the student unless distance education is in place, AKA, class work and tests done on the computer.
More schools may be planning differently now in the event that schools won’t re-open next August by governor’s decree or county decree. If that should happen, how will they educate the kids? It can be done online, but what about the kids who don’t have access to Wi-fi? When are they going to end this year’s grading system to determine the valedictorian, for example, salutatorian? That’s still not yet been publicized. Vanguard is already saying this school year is over for its students. How each student will be ultimately graded will be based on the report card they received last February, according to Vanguard Superintendent Dr. Narciso Garcia.
The meals program, too, has been damaged, to some degree, by the school closings. Most districts are still providing them, while a few are not. For the first time since before Spring Break, PSJA is set to hand out meals this Wednesday between 10 a.m. and noon at its central kitchen and transportation complex on the corner of Stewart Road and Bus. 83 between San Juan and Alamo. We should have a list by next week that includes the meals-program schedule at all of the school districts in Hidalgo County.
Vanguard steps up
According to Garcia, he and his administrative staff hit the ground running the weekend before Spring Break, worked all the way through the break, and was then ready to hand out meals the following week, along with teaching materials that included packets and even Wi-fis to the students who didn’t have access to the internet at home. When they picked up meals that first day, they picked up homework packets for the week.
“On that Monday following spring break,” said Garcia, “we asked our teachers for volunteers to help put together those packets. Out of approximately 200 teachers, we had 150 respond to our request for help. The state education commissioner had already made clear before spring break that if we didn’t have some continuity of education for our students in place after spring break, then the district wasn’t going to get paid by the state. So, on that Friday and Saturday following spring break, we distributed about 4,425 packets and Chromebooks to our students. We also purchased about 140 Wi-Fi hotspots for our students who don’t have broadband access.”
According to Garcia, the meals program was a big surprise, given the fact that school wasn’t officially in session on site, so to speak.
“Two thousand meals were served that first day. I felt a little bit anxious because I was like, ‘Holy cow, man. How are we going to do this?’ But once I sat down with my team on that first Saturday and Sunday, we figured it out.”
The need for meals has only grown since Vanguard started handing them out in the latter part of the week of March 23, said Garcia.
“There are a lot of needy families out there because either one or both spouses have lost their jobs,” said Garcia. “What I have really discovered, is that our community is hurting, economically wise. That’s what I’ve discovered. I think it’s a moral responsibility and obligation to feed children in our community because they either attend our school or schools, or they live in the community that we serve.”
Thanks to an application Vanguard did with the Texas Department of Agriculture, the charter school district is not only going to serve meals to its own students, but to other students as well, as long as they live in the cities Vanguard serves, which includes Pharr, Alamo, and Edinburg.
According to Garcia, thanks to that extra money, Vanguard is now feeding between 4,000 and 5,000 students two meals a day (the parents gets two meals per visit), five days a week.
“That’s a lot of meals per day,” said Garcia, “between 8,000 and 10,000.”
What about the threat of the coronavirus, though? Doesn’t Garcia find pushback from school staff about getting exposed to the virus while either handing out meals outside or working side by side with co-workers?
“Our staff is showing up just like we knew they would. Since the beginning though, we’ve provided them with protective equipment, with gloves, your masks, and then we have trained them as well with regard to proper precautions.”
Not one of the cafeteria staff ever said no, said Garcia.
“On the other hand, what they say is, ‘You know, we’d rather be here helping our community distribute meals because what good are we going to do sitting at home? We’re taking the necessary precautions. We just have been blessed to have a very dedicated staff here at Vanguard.”
The school staff hands out meals at six locations: two in Alamo; three in Pharr; and one in Edinburg.
Other people are also stepping up to help, said Garcia. “Cafeteria staff custodians, maintenance, grounds, and drivers. We just have a great bunch of people who are willing to pull together through tough times.”
Asked if he has plans for next year, Garcia said he has three. The first one assumes that regular classes will resume in normal fashion next August. The second one assumes it won’t and distance learning will replace what used to go on in the classroom.
“As far as summer school is concerned, said Garcia, he has two scenarios he can work. “Call it our third option broken down into two parts. One involves the classroom, while the other involves distance learning.”
Garcia said he doesn’t like to get political, but he said he does hope that the state and the county will start to help out more with food distribution.
“I think they have to do a little more. Just ourselves, we served 110,000 meals in just the last three weeks, and we could have served more if we had additional manpower. Our staff is distributing meals between 7 a.m. and 2 p.m. The people doing the serving, and those helping them, have gone way above and beyond what you’d normally consider to be a commitment to this community. Look how long the line is at the Food Bank in Pharr now. From what we’re seeing, there are a lot of hungry people out there; people now out of work who weren’t used to having to feed their kids three meals over the course of a day. Dinner, okay, but now, if not for the school meals program, these now out-of-work parents would have to come up with the money for more meals. That is the dilemma this county is facing – making sure that people have enough to eat through these trying times.”