Al's Outreach Outtakes

It’s official! The school year is back in full swing and so is the back pack program. So far we have received request for support from Barnes, Beaver Acres, Elmonica and Ridgewood schools. I have also met with Merlo Station as well as with Beaverton High School to better understand their needs. As of this writing I do not have exact numbers as to how many back packs will be needed, but I anticipate it will be similar to last year at over 100 each week. I also anticipate some of the other schools we helped last year will soon be reaching out. Thanks to your generosity in support of this program, we are prepared to do whatever it takes to insure that no child within the Beaverton School District goes without food. As always, thank you for your support!
 
You may recall that Holy Trinity participates in the Community Partners program at Beaverton High School. Through this program many faith based and business leaders gather with staff and students on a regular basis to better understand how we might support the student population, especially those dealing with food and housing insecurity. In our most recent meeting we learned that out of the 1490+ students enrolled at Beaverton High School, 82 of them have already been identified as homeless. We know this number will go up significantly over the next few months as student situations become better understood by teachers and counselors.

As part of this meeting we began discussing the food backpack type program that will again be implemented this year during the winter break for identified students. Working with other churches and lead by our friends at Bethel Congregational Church we will build and deliver five—six bags of food each to well over 100 students. In it’s 5th year, this program has proven to be critical to those students who normally receive breakfast and lunch at the high school and who may now have no place to go for food. As always, Holy Trinity will help provide some of the required food. Volunteers will gather at Bethel to build the bags while others will be needed to help with delivery. I will update this column as more details  become available.