The Ignacio High School student group, Friends with Food, found new ways to combat food insecurity by running a community food bank and delivering meals to the Navajo Nation.
The student group has led food security efforts in Ignacio for years, primarily through a free food pantry in Ignacio High School. With schools closed and the economy reeling, students are taking on new leadership roles through a local nonprofit, Pine River Shares, to help those in need.
“We feel proud of our work because we know that we’re helping a bigger cause than just ourselves,” said Hannah Cundiff, a senior and Friends with Food member. “It’s cool watching our group get together and do this thing for our community.”
Friends with Food works with Pine River Shares to support Ignacio High School, which has a 66% free and reduced lunch rate. Before schools closed, the program supplied about 100 meals each week. Now, students no longer have access to those food pantries.
Friends with Food members and Pine River Shares decided to keep the food pantry going by serving food on school campuses alongside school staff offering a free meal.
While adapting the food pantry program, students have taken on new leadership roles.
For example, Pine River Shares hired the teenagers as part of its COVID-19 response team to convert its food bank program to comply with safety and social-distancing requirements.
For the food pantry program, students planned how and when to pack food bags, which include six meals with fresh fruit and nonperishable food items. Students haul food from grocery stores and implement high-end food safety protocols. They distribute 250 bags of food each week around the Pine River Valley, including from 11 a.m. to noon Tuesdays in Ignacio and on Wednesdays in Allison.
“The first week, a lot of parents were actually saying no to us. When that first rent was due ... that’s when we got a lot of people needing food,” Cundiff said. Now, “almost everybody gets a food bag.”
When the COVID-19 outbreak in the Navajo Nation worsened, the group wanted to help.
Cundiff, who is of Navajo descent, worked with her family to organize a food bag delivery. They delivered about 50 food bags for elders, then they decided to stay longer and help distribute them. By the end of the day, they had served about 150 households, she said.
“All that’s happening, and their lives are happening, too,” said Pam Wilhoite, executive director of Pine River Shares. She said the students are worried about schoolwork, relationships and that they may not graduate.
“At the same time, they’re exercising extraordinary leadership,” she said.
smullane@durangoherald.com
