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The Snack Shack

‘Helping Our Children’ program benefits WAEC

Times Observer photo by Stacey Gross Snacks in the Snack Shack.

Times Observer photo by Stacey Gross Boxes of lost and found items.The Snack Shack is stocked.

Matt Menard, counselor for grades kindergarten through second grade at Warren Area Elementary Center, said that not only are they doing well keeping donations coming in for classroom snacks, but things like backpacks, boots, shoes, clothes, and cold-weather accessories are well-stocked at the school.

Menard said that a group called “Helping our Children,” a partnership of local churches and agencies, meets once a month to discuss what’s needed not only at WAEC but also at Beaty-Warren Middle School and Warren Area High School, and helps meet those needs by collecting donations throughout the year.

Helping Our Children, said Menard, keeps the pantries at Beaty and the high school going. But they also make sure that there are plenty of healthy snacks for children who many not have been able to bring snacks to eat during their classroom snack time.

“Snack time can be a trigger,” said Menard, for kids in need or without access to healthy snacks while everyone else is eating.

And it’s not just Helping Our Children that is helping our children.

Anonymous donations — or donations in bulk from various agencies and groups — have shown up at the school with no strings attached.

Boxes of scarves, shoes, and snacks have been left to help stock the elementary school’s clothing and food pantry.

Lost-and-found items that have accumulated, said Menard, were originally just donated to charity at the end of the year. “I started thinking,” said Menard, “why don’t we just keep them?”

Helping Our Children took all of the unclaimed lost-and-found items and washed them, he said, and also collected boxes and labeled them with gender and size information, sorting all of the clothing into the appropriate boxes.

“When a teacher can see that a child is consistently showing up in worn-out our inappropriate clothing,” said Menard, they can just come down to his office, where all of the snacks and clothes are kept, and get something new out of the boxes.

Anyone interested in donating to the Snack Shack can contact Menard by calling the Warren Area Elementary Center at (814) 723-9061.

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