A first-grade teacher’s vision for afternoon snacks grew into a movement of care and connection.
Imagine this: You’re a first-grader, slumped in your chair while your teacher explains the intricacies of subtraction. You’re tired from recess and haven’t eaten anything for three hours. Learning feels impossible.
Libby Shultz, a first-grade teacher in Hutchinson, Kansas, and K-State graduate, recognized the need for an afternoon pick-me-up snack for elementary students.
During her first year of teaching, Shultz heard about the Today’s Teacher scholarship that supports teachers wanting to do a service that connects community to students. Her idea was to get snacks for every classroom in her school through community donations.
When Shultz reached out to the community, the local First Presbyterian Church stepped up. Now each classroom gets tubs of pretzels, animal crackers and goldfish for students to enjoy during snack time.
“Our community understands that children in school are the future, so they need to be able to learn and get the most out of their education,” said Susan Buttram, member of the mission committee at First Presbyterian Church. “If they’re having a midafternoon slump and all they need is a couple pretzels to get them through the end-of-day learning, that’s an obvious community partnership and an easy problem to fix.”
Inspirational impact
Some students don’t have good sources of food at home, so they only get to eat at lunch at school. Snack time helps them to leave school with full stomachs and a brighter attitude.
Shultz hopes that the care shown by Hutchinson will motivate kids to do the same in the future.
“One of the main goals of teaching is to inspire these kids to grow up to be good humans who want to help others,” she said.
Lee and Barb Harris, founders of the Today’s Teacher scholarship, say that the primary goal is to spark a fire in teachers and communities.
Encouraged by the success of the snack program, the church hosted a food drive for the school. Through the donations of the community, the school now has enough food for a pantry for students to take home meals over the weekends.
“I think these kids can feel how good it feels to have someone care about them,” Shultz said. “Hopefully it inspires a chain reaction for them, so they want to make a difference in their community in the future.”
By Kate Ellwood
Curated from Heartbeat of the neighborhood