A proposal for Oak Park and River Forest High School to spend $157,000 next school year to fund eight snack cabinets in the school’s hallways was met with a mixed reaction from the OPRF District 200 school board when the proposal was discussed at the June 25 school board meeting.
The proposal was made by the group Students Feeding Students. The group was formed late last year. The students raised $11,556 this year. The group ran a self-funded pilot project in May in which the students stocked four cabinets in OPRF hallways with snacks for any student to take. The idea behind the free snacks is to combat hunger and food insecurity among students without stigma.
Nolan Krueger, a rising senior at OPRF, is a leader of Students Feeding Students. In a public comment made at the June 25 school board meeting Krueger told the school board that the pilot program in May was a success.
“We’ve received overwhelmingly positive feedback from students and staff,” Krueger said. “As expected, it’s not just the students who need snacks that take them. We’ve observed students who skipped breakfast to arrive at school on time taking a snack as well as students with a 6th period lunch or, you know, other outstanding problems. This program has the ability to reach all parts of the school without a bit of stigma.”
Krueger said during the May pilot the cabinets, which contained granola bars, Goldfish crackers and other snacks, were empty by the end of lunch time every day.
Krueger says Students Feeding Students surveyed 475 students after the May rollout and found 40% had taken a snack from a cabinet while 80% had seen the cabinets.
The students are also asking for a refrigerator stocked with items such as milk, yogurt cheese sticks, meat and cheese snacks and Lunchables.
Krueger’s mother, Mollie Hertel, has been helping Students Feeding Students. Hertel has formed a group called Oak Park Mutual Aid which plans to operate somewhat like a parent teacher organization for OPRF and hopes to obtain official status from the school this summer. Krueger said Mutual Aid wrote up the proposal last November.
Among those speaking in support of the project was Oak Park Village Trustee Jenna Leving Jacobson.
“Over the past several months, I have had the great privilege of observing this inspiring group of OPRF students first identify the injustice of food insecurity at their school, study and learn about the causes of that injustice and the current insufficient response to it,” Leving Jacobson told the school board.
While all board members praised the hard work and good intentions of the students, only three board members, Fred Arkin, Jonathan Livingston and Kathleen Odell, seemed very supportive of the proposal.
“I think it’s a really, really compelling proposal to a really, really worrisome problem,” Odell said.
Three other board members, Tim Brandhorst, Josh Gertz and board president Audrey Williams-Lee, expressed reservations about the snack cabinet proposal while Graham Brisben said more study and meetings were needed. No vote was taken and the proposal will be discussed at another board meeting, likely this summer when it will probably get a formal vote.
Odell said she liked that the snacks were available to everyone, a key component of the proposal because that avoids any stigma or embarrassment for students who might need a snack because of not having enough food at home.
But it is that universal access that caused problems for Brandhorst, Gertz and Williams-Lee. They questioned whether having snacks available for all students during the school day was the best way to combat the food insecurity of some students.
“It is incumbent on us to look at alternatives that are going to directly address that food insecure cohort specifically,” Brandhorst said before going on to state his concern with the snack cabinet idea.
Williams-Lee also wondered whether snack cabinets are the best way to address food insecurity.
“I am challenged by not knowing if the food is going to the kids who really need it,” Williams-Lee said. “What the students have done is, I think, a really great start. I don’t necessarily know that this is the right solution for our kids and families who are experiencing food insecurity.”
Gertz said that meals, not snacks, are the best way to combat hunger noting that some of the snacks are mostly empty calories.
“The idea of bottomless snacks is not super convincing to me,” Getz said.
After the meeting Krueger said he didn’t know much about the food needs of those who took snacks from the cabinet in May.
“There’s no real way to track it,” Krueger said. He said he is happy that the board is considering the proposal. “I’m just glad that we finally got into the board room,” Krueger said.
Williams-Lee said she would like the board to consider other ideas to help food insecure students whose families don’t qualify for free or reduced lunch who need help, perhaps figuring out a way to add money to those students’ lunch cards.
“I want to understand who it is we’re trying to help and actually help those students in ways that are sustainable.”
But Arkin warned against endless study and delay even though he said that the school board is still in the figuring out stage. Arkin said he wants the program to continue to be student led.
“I am supportive of moving forward for next year and setting up some kind of formal arrangement,” Arkin said.
Gertz said that there is no rush.
“I’d rather the administration bring up a viable solution and if that takes until December I’m OK with that,” Gertz said.