Student Excellence Foundation creates new fund for students and families in crisis
The new Essential Needs Fund for Students and Families in Crisis established by the Student Excellence Foundation will help provide multiple resources for students and their families. Historically in Wheaton-Warrenville Unit District 200, 27% of students come from low-income households, and 3,310 students receive a free or reduced lunch every school day.
Now with the additional challenges of COVID-19 such as remote learning and employment insecurity, more students and their families are struggling.
In March 2020, the foundation developed the Food Insecurity Crisis Fund to help families in the school district struggling to put food on the table.
Since then, 6,206 boxes of food have been distributed, helping 7,610 families. This October, the foundation expanded the fund to meet additional needs. The fund will now be known as the Essential Needs Fund for Students and Families in Crisis, and while continuing to address food insecurity issues, the growing fund will now also offer district families help with meeting needs for winter weather gear and learning enrichment.
The Student Excellence Foundation, through generous community and business donations, will offer mobile food pantries three times a month, providing an average of 250 families per event with fresh food, including produce and dairy.
The next mobile food pantry events for District 200 students and families in crisis are scheduled for 4 to 5 p.m.: Monday, Dec. 21, and Wednesday, Jan. 13, at Monroe Middle School, 1855 Manchester, Wheaton; and Thursday, Jan. 7, and Wednesday, Jan. 20, at Hubble Middle School, 3S600 Herrick Road, Warrenville.
To locate one of the Essential Needs Fund's mobile food pantries, see the foundation's social media accounts as well as the District 200 website at www.cusd200.org/domain/2604.
Due to COVID-19 limitations this year, many organizations are not holding their typical coat and supply drives. To fill these unmet needs, the foundation will work through school social workers to identify students in need of appropriate winter clothing, and the Essential Needs Fund will provide the means for their families to purchase these items at reduced cost.
This has been a year of unprecedented learning challenges for many. Students are facing learning from home as well as in vastly different in-classroom environments this season, and many need additional resources to help ensure school success. The foundation's Essential Needs Fund will provide learning enrichment resources to students and families in need.
Your donation today will allow the Student Excellence Foundation to provide supportive resources to many local families.
Donations can be made online at www.StudentExcellenceFoundation.org or via check mailed to The Student Excellence Foundation, P.O. Box 253, Wheaton, IL 60187.
Founded in 1992 as a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization (EIN # 36-3786044), the Student Excellence Foundation serves Wheaton-Warrenville District 200's 1,800 educators and nearly 13,000 students in 13 elementary schools, 4 middle schools, 2 high schools, an early childhood center, and a transition center, and is dependent upon parent and community volunteers. Your donation is tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law.