By Lori Fischer Thorp

Correspondent

While some people were pondering the selection of clothing from their closet this morning, there were Frazee-Vergas students who would have loved to have had a choice of what to wear.

Some might have lacked a supply of toiletries, or adequate meals for the day.

“No matter how the economy is doing, there will always be families struggling with the basic necessities,” Dani Adams said in a January 15, 2023 FaceBook post that introduced the Hornet Care Closet to the community and offered the opportunity to help stock it with items.

Adams, a Frazee High School (FHS) paraprofessional, recently teamed up with FHS Science teacher Tavia Bachmann, other staff and the district’s Parent-Teacher Organization to set up this new asset in students’ day-to-day lives. 

In the few weeks the Care Closet has been in operation, it’s already making a difference by providing items such as clothing, an assortment of quick meal choices and personal care products.

“Building an in-school care closet will give the students in need the ability to discreetly pick and choose the clothing and basic necessities they may need and are proud to wear,” said Adam’s post.

Since her message to the community and an Amazon wish list for the project was first posted, one of the offices in the high school’s Student Services area has been the receiving point for several racks of clothing and school supplies, and the room’s cabinets are filling with needed items.

“There are everyday basic needs here that many of us take for granted,” Adams said when she and Bachmann met for a newspaper interview. “We’ve got a good start here.”

Still, it’s just that—a start. Adams is hopeful that word will continue to circulate and more people will visit the wish list and contribute as they’re able. 

“No child should ever have to go without basic necessities,” Adams said.

“It makes me reflect,” said Bachmann. “These are things they need, not that they want, but what they need.”

When a person is not in need, she said, they might not realize that some students in the community struggle to make purchases of items such as feminine care products, which Bachmann said rang up to $21 for her on a recent day. 

“Some of our students’ families can’t afford that,” she said.

The situations causing students to not have enough clothing, or laundry detergent, or food to make it through a weekend, can arise from anything, the duo said. For some families, a loss is sudden, and for others the challenges spread over time. 

A fire, family illness, a vehicle breakdown, housing issues or a parent’s job loss are only a few of the examples the pair gave of events that can lead to a student being in need.

“Not everyone is as open in public about their struggles,” Bachmann said, so they make certain distributions are confidential and comfortable for youth.

To access the Care Closet, students can connect with counselors Ta Fett or Megan Galligan, or other staff with whom they have a trusting relationship. Whichever person a student comes to, “We’ll get you in the room,” Adams and Bachmann said.

Right now, said Bachmann, “We’re waiting to see kids use this. This is going to be a work in progress,” determined by students’ varying needs over time. Bachmann said the team is appreciative of “start-up donations that people have generously given.”

Adams said when community members use the Amazon wish list to make purchases, the items are direct-shipped, and it’s been very reaffirming to see those boxes arrive. A friend of hers who works at Essentia’s Imaging department spearheaded a drive among her coworkers to boost the Care Closet’s supply. 

If a donor wishes, they can obtain a receipt for charitable donation tax itemization. 

Adams said on FaceBook, “We truly live in an incredible little community. Thank you to all who have donated to the Hornet Care Closet! We are so excited to get this set up for the kids in our school.”

Organizers are looking at possible grants to help with expanding the selection in the Closet. Bachmann said they’re also “working with Cornerstone (Frazee Community and Youth Project). They have a food pantry there as well” so there is an “open line of communication” to plan for local youth’s food needs.

“Did you know more than 1 in 7 children in America experienced food insecurity and did not have enough to eat in 2019?” Adams said in her post. 

The nonprofit Feeding America defines food insecurity as “a lack of consistent access to enough food for every person in a household to live an active, healthy life.”

Stacker.com has compiled information about food insecurity, with Minnesota ranking as the state fourth from the bottom of the list in terms of percentage of children experiencing the problem, but that percentage is 9.3 percent, meaning about 1 in every 10 children in the state. In comparison, Louisiana ranked highest at 21.5 percent, and North Dakota ranked lowest, at 8.1 percent.

Of the 87 counties in Minnesota, Becker County ranks 19th from the top of the list, with a rate of 13.5 percent of children who may be worrying about food today.

“I think kids are good at putting up walls,” said Bachmann. “School’s their safe place…my goal as a teacher is to make kids feel, ‘I’m safe, I’m loved,’ that this is absolutely a place you can tell someone your life is hard.” 

Both Bachmann and Adams moved to the community because their husbands are Frazee natives. 

Bachmann is from Park Rapids and said, “I count my blessings every day for the family I had.” 

A Frazee teacher for 15 years, she and her husband Andrew have three children.

“My kids can go to the cabinet and find something to eat,” she said. “Not every kid has that.” 

Bachmann said Adams “is the forefront of this project. She took it and just ran with it…she has a heart of gold.”

“We always had a roof over our heads, and food on the table,” Adams said of her growing up years. The Detroit Lakes High School grad and her husband, Alex, are the parents of two children, and it’s her first year on the FHS staff.

“We want the kids to feel good about themselves,” she said. 

Adams shared a recent story about a student who had no sweatshirt or jacket. Staff connected him with a warm garment, and “he said it was the best thing that had happened to him in a really long time,” she said.

Lack of access to everyday basic needs, she said, can lead to kids missing school. Adams is determined to make sure if a student needs socks, gloves, school supplies, snacks or any other item the Closet can supply, they get it. She hopes those seemingly small steps build up students’ self-esteem. 

Adams’ Facebook post summarized that she hopes this project lets students “know they have a safe place to go, and they are cared about. Every child should have access to the basic needs of life so they can focus on their education.”

For more information, contact Adams or Bachmann, or check out the project’s Amazon wish list: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/3H6574GVZC46A?ref_=wl_share