Pocatello/Chubbuck School District working with close to 150 homeless students

Since the school year has started, the Pocatello/Chubbuck School District has been working with close to 150 homeless students. On top of that, many of these students rely on the district for basic things like food.

“This is a problem in our community. Kids are going home hungry,” said Callie Ceci, the community resource worker for the secondary schools.

On Wednesday, students from the VOICE or Vocational Opportunities for Independent Community-based Education program teamed up with the community resource worker to collect food for the school food pantry.

While the Idaho Food Bank does give the school district food, they are looking for “kid-friendly” items that do not require a lot of meal preparation.

“So if mom and dad are at work or yeah know aunt and uncle are at work, they can prepare something themselves,” commented Ceci. “We got pop top items like with the cans that they can prepare themselves with minimal risk. We try and not have them operate the stove or the oven or anything like that. Just easy items they can eat themselves,” added Ceci.

A district representative said in past years they have worked with close to 300 homeless students at a time. The representative added, that currently around 47 percent of students in the district also rely on free or reduced lunches at school.

If you are interested in donating kid-friendly food items, you can drop off donations at the Irving Middle School.

Some of the kid-friendly food items they are looking for include: applesauce, water bottles, granola bars, oatmeal, fruit cups, tuna packs, fruit snacks, cup of noodle packs and canned food with pop-top lids.