FARMINGTON — Students in the grades seven to 12 Day Treatment Program at Mt. Blue Campus have taken over the school’s food pantry in a service learning project.

Boxes of books and a mobile cart were moved to free up shelves for food storage. Students checked expiration dates on food that had been previously collected and reorganized the pantry.

Students put tags on shelves to identify the food products and restocked the shelves, Corey Walmer, licensed social worker and day treatment clinician, said.

“We are doing a lot of food that kids can make quickly,” such as soups, packaged meals that can be put in the microwave, granola bars, cans of fruit, and cheese and crackers, she said. 

Walmer was stocking the shelves with cans of tuna fish Thursday.

All teachers have a key to the pantry so they can give food discreetly to students in need, she said. Students also can go to the school nurse.

Students issued a challenge to staff and students to see who could collect the most food for the pantry.

“Our goal is to keep it fully stocked and to have other food drives,” Walmer said.

Students from the Jobs for Maine Graduates program helped move the heavier boxes to a higher shelf or another place in storage area that had blocked the shelves at the onset of the project.

Caela Seeley, 15, of Farmington was one of the organizers of the project. She is part of a life skills group that meets weekly.

“I feel that this is something to help other people and I feel it would make us feel better,” she said.

Seeley made a flier she distributed around the campus notifying staff and students about the food drive.

“I feel we have taken control of the food pantry,” she said. “More students will be able to access better food.”

There are people like herself who do not like canned foods so people donated other types of foods such as macaroni and cheese that can be popped in the microwave.

Usually if children wanted to access the food pantry, they would go to a trusted adult who would get the food and give it discreetly to them, Seeley said.

Her group is still exploring how to staff the food pantry and keep it stocked.

The school does not meet the threshold of 50 percent of students receiving free and reduced-price meals at school to access food for the food pantry from the Good Shepherd Food Bank. The school is at 41 percent, Walmer said. Other schools in the district qualify, she said.

“I know a lot of kids who could use the pantry,” Seeley said. “I feel like they would not listen to an adult. I feel they would listen to a kid their age to help them out. It is a way to get out of our group and be part of the whole school.” 

“Our Day Treatment Program is kind of school within a school,” Walmer said.

The Mt. Blue Regional School District Day Treatment program is designed for those students in grades seven to 12 at risk of failing in school because of emotional, behavioral or mental health issues that interfere with learning, according to Walmer’s information.

“The program’s aim is to support those students by providing individualized, structured academic programming, coupled with therapeutic, clinically supported staff support in a self-contained setting to ensure a successful school experience and eventual matriculation,” the document states.

dperry@sunmediagroup.net