The Auburn Public Schools Foundation is holding a charity drive to make sure every student has their basic needs met this winter, Executive Director Natasha Daily said.
During a normal school year, the foundation steps in to cover things taxpayer money doesn’t pay for. This includes paying for things like field trips or a set of calculators — things that not all students can afford, Daily said.
“We exist to basically support the Auburn School District, so in a normal year we provide classroom-based grants around STEM, literacy, the arts, nutrition and things like that,” Daily said. (STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics)
The foundation also works to ensure that students’ basic needs are met — such as getting a meal — so they can focus on learning while at school, Daily said.
“We also offer pantry project funds so we provide funds to each school for food, clothing, hygiene items and other basic needs so students have immediate access to that,” Daily said.
During the pandemic, the Auburn Public Schools Foundation pivoted to focus more on ensuring Auburn students had their basic needs met. They knew that the families who were struggling before were going to be hit hardest by COVID-19, Daily said.
Last year, on top of funding classroom grants, the foundation also gave some families $50 gift cards to Fred Meyer or Walmart for basic needs or gas, Daily said. This year they’re back to focusing on classroom-based grants and the basic needs drive.
Now the Auburn Public Schools Foundation is partnering with Valley Buick GMC to collect donations for the foundation’s basic need drive, Daily said.
Valley Buick GMC is doing a “Fill the Truck” event and collecting donations for coats, T-shirts, leggings, sweatpants — just basic things that students need.
The foundation also worked with the Auburn-based knitting store, A Little Knitty, to gather handmade hats for the basic needs drive, said Linda Ball, Auburn Public Schools Foundation volunteer.
Jen Reeves, the owner of A Little Knitty, put out a call to Auburn knitters for knit beanie hats. They collected over 40 hats to donate to the foundation’s drive.
There are around 17,000 students in the Auburn School District and around 9,000 of them are on the free and reduced lunch program, Daily said. The foundation would love to be able to support every student who doesn’t have their basic needs met this winter, but realistically they hope to gather enough donations to serve between 100 and 150 students, Daily said.
The number of students they’re able to serve through this drive largely depends on the needs of the individual students, Daily said. Some students might just need a jacket, whereas others need a jacket and a toothbrush and shampoo.
The foundation also has additional funding at each school to meet other needs. For example, if a student needs shoes, there’s money at the school for them to go out and buy a pair of shoes, Daily said.
“We really try to make sure if a student has a need, that need is met, because we know that when students are coming to school hungry or if they don’t have clean clothes or adequate clothing, it’s a distraction to their education,” Daily said.
The foundation is already starting to distribute some of the donations to schools prior to winter break. Over the break, they will sort through the rest of the donations and drop them off at schools in the first week of January, Daily said.
The Fill the Truck event is going on through the end of December. Valley Buick GMC is also donating $10 for every test drive.
You can contribute to the basic needs drive by donating to the Auburn Public Schools Foundation directly through their website at auburnpsf.org or by purchasing supplies on their Amazon Wishlist. The foundation also collects gift cards for local stores throughout the year.
