March 10, 2023 – After years of preparation, Glenn High School took a big step towards addressing food insecurity in their community with the opening of its Bobcat Food Pantry.

The idea for the pantry originated in 2020 with Operation Feliz Navidad, during which the school helped provide Christmas dinners to families in need during the first holiday season since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. While the effort was a success, it opened many students’ eyes to the overwhelming volume of people in their neighborhood who don’t have enough to eat. The school’s Spanish Club took it upon themselves to start a food pantry on campus as a more permanent solution to the problem.

“The realization of this effort has been a labor of love for almost two years,” said Spanish Club Sponsor and World Languages Department Chair Latisa Warner. “Students have worked diligently to secure a space, clean and sanitize this space, recruit sponsors, and finally stock the pantry.”

Since then, the club has packed a storeroom at Glenn with shelf-stable foods, as well as new backpacks, that will be available to students that need them. They did so with help from the school staff, as well as sponsors like Summit Church and CD Industries, which produced the shelving used in the pantry. CD Industries CEO Paul Durham says it’s important to him that his company be a force for good in their area, and feeding hungry children is about as noble of a cause as they could possibly be a part of.

“We’ve been so blessed as a company and we want to be able to give back to our community,” Durham said. “To see these kids who don’t always know where their food is going to come from… it’s a no-brainer.”

Despite the key role of sponsors, this was a student-led effort from start to finish. Members of the club collected food, set up and maintained the storeroom, and even created a custom banner to advertise the service with. Even now that it’s open, they’re already thinking about expanding the operation to allow for refrigeration and offer their classmates even more support. If there’s more to be done to help food insecure families in the area, they want to get it done.

“We want to make sure that everyone is well-fed and taken care of,” Sophomore Eva Benã Ruiz said. “We want to spread the love.”