Partnering to Feed Saint Paul Public School Families with Emergency Boxes

Schools play an important role in the health of our communities. This winter, Saint Paul Public Schools (SPPS) demonstrated that support for students and their families in a big way through providing emergency food boxes during Operation Metro Surge.

As the second largest school district in the state, SPPS is home to 32,000 students. Along with its size, the district also serves a variety of families from different backgrounds and economic situations.

“One of the things that's unique about Saint Paul is that we have a lot of students who suffer from food insecurity,” explained SPPS Nutrition Services Director Stacy Koppen. “A lot of our students get most of their daily nutritional intake when they are at school.”

So, when students aren’t attending school, that means they are not getting access to vital school meals. Once Operation Metro Surge was announced and Minnesota saw an uptick in immigration enforcement, SPPS saw a big decline in attendance. “There were a lot of students who were not going to school—were afraid to go to school,” said Stacy. “Also, parents were afraid to go to the grocery store.”

It was at that point that the district knew they needed to do something to make sure students and their families were getting the food they needed. SPPS representatives met with the Second Harvest Heartland team to figure out the best way to get meals to families’ homes and quickly decided to start distributing emergency food boxes. “We turned things around pretty quickly,” said Stacy. “I think that the first delivery was done within two weeks of meeting.”

Using four district vans and 16 staff members, SPPS delivered shelf-stable food boxes provided by Second Harvest Heartland to students’ homes. The boxes included a variety of items to make meals, like pasta, rice, beans, tuna, and canned fruits and vegetables.

The district saw very stable levels of participation in the home delivery program, with families appreciating receiving the food boxes each week. “To me, that is a sign that families felt value and use of the food,” said Stacy. “From beginning to end, there were 8,314 boxes provided to our SPPS families.”

SPPS is thankful for the support they received from Second Harvest Heartland in both the planning and distribution of emergency food to student families. “I really appreciate all the effort [Second Harvest Heartland] put into it, to make sure that people weren't going hungry,” said Stacy. “With all the chaos that was happening around families, the one thing they didn't have to worry about was groceries.”