'Transforming' pantry to open

Michael B. Hardison, The Sampson Independent, Clinton, N.C.
·3 min read

Aug. 31—Clinton City Schools furthered its push back against food insecurity for students Thursday afternoon with the official opening of the second Dark Horse Food Pantry, located at Sampson Middle School.

Key members from the CCS system, Second Harvest Food Bank and the North Carolina Community Action Association gathered at Sampson Middle School for a ribbon-cutting ceremony marking the opening.

"For me this is very personal because sometimes people are in difficult situations and they need assistance," CCS Superintendent Dr. Wesley Johnson said. "The school is a place for that assistance and I'm blessed that we have the means to provide those."

This pantry, like the Clinton High School pantry, which opened around the same time last year, is located inside the school and will open to all students from 2 to 2:30 p.m. every Friday. While there, students can grab every food item imaginable, from Ramen noodles, fruit cups, canned veggies, cereal and much more. All these items are meant to help combat food insecurity within CCS, especially for students who may need food through the weekend when away from school.

While the ribbon cutting means the pantry is open, students are not expected to have access until this coming Friday, Sept. 2.

With this being a massive group effort between many different entities, multiple faces were present at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. A few shared thoughts on being able to bring a second CSS food pantry to fruition.

"This is a really exciting day," Elle Evans Peterson, NC Community Action Impact Manager, said. "We worked for a long time — many, many weeks and many months, sometimes years, to be able to have a day like this; so this is a great day."

"It may not look a lot like a pantry right now, but it's going to have a transforming effect here in the next few days," she said with a laugh. "Come (Thursday), you will see it full of food, personal care items and all kinds of resources for our students. So we're very excited about this."

"We are very proud to move it from high school into middle school and now we have a pantry for our 6 through 12 children," CCS Board of Education chair, Dr. Linda Brunson, said. "I just want to say thank you to the North Carolina Community Action Council, Second Harvest Food Bank, our community, our staff, our teachers, our other staff members, for your support of giving food to our children."

"We want their learning environment to be as robust as it can be and they have to not be hungry for that to happen," she said. "So, if we can provide instructional services for them and then we provide food for them, we hope that all those things will make them better students and better individuals. We're proud of what we're doing here in Clinton City Schools and in the Clinton community."

"We at Sampson Middle School are looking forward to the pantry," SMS new principal Tony Faison added. "I'm very excited. We have so many students that are not on what we call the rim of wealth, but a lot of them feel shameful about needing help. But, with us opening it out to all of our students, they can come without being singled out."

"So again, I'm really, really, really excited about that and looking forward to it."

Any and all members of the community can volunteer to donate and help restock the pantry so students have access to food they may need. For questions or to volunteer for a pantry shift, contact Faison at tfaison@clinton.k12.nc.us.

Reach Michael B. Hardison at 910-249-4231. Follow us on Twitter at @SamsponInd, like us on Facebook, and check out our Instagram at @thesampsonindependent.