Palominas Food Pantry
If there’s one thing that can be said about the Palominas District, it’s that we care about our community and want to do everything we can to make sure that our community has all of the basic needs so that our students can come to school happy and ready to learn. As our Superintendent, Mrs. Copeland likes to say, “If our kids are coming to school hungry we’re already behind the curve in teaching them. If a student can only think about how hungry he is, he won’t be able to think about much else.”
This idea led to the partnership between the Palominas District and the Sierra Vista Dream Center to ensure that every family in our district in need, would have enough food to feed their family over the weekend. The program was the brainchild of our Director of Exceptional Student Services, Mrs. Beth Ross, and the Palominas School Exceptional Student Services teacher, Mrs. Margaret Rejtmar. Parents from across the district were sent an open invitation to participate in the program through which they would receive a box of non-perishable food each Friday afternoon available for pickup at their school site.
Mrs. Rejtmar has been instrumental in the planning and distribution of the food, donated to the district, by the Sierra Vista Dream Center. She and a wonderful group of students and staff have in-processed, unpacked, sorted, repacked and distributed food for 30 district families each week since September!
On Tuesday, November 22, from 3-5 pm, in the Palominas Gym, the Palominas District in partnership with the Sierra Vista Dream Center and Fort Huachuca ISEC was able to open it's doors to all Palominas District Community Members in need of food and/or clothing for the Thanksgiving holiday. This joint effort was responsible for giving away 24 boxes of new and gently used clothes, including winter jackets provided by Amerigas, and approximately 200 boxes of food! We were also fortunate to give away 45 turkeys provided by local donors.
With so much success during our Thanksgiving event, we, along with the Sierra Vista Dream Center and Fort Huachuca ISEC, are looking forward to having another food pantry and clothing giveaway on the 15th of December during our Parent Literacy Night at Coronado School.
