It can often be difficult to ask for help when you need it, especially when it comes to asking for assistance with basic needs like food or toiletries.
For adolescents who are at an age when fitting in with peers is the priority, Tianna Anthony, principal at Grafton Middle School, said her students are less than forthcoming when it comes to asking for support.
It’s one reason why having a “Comfort Closet,” or a secluded area where students can inconspicuously pick up essentials like a hairbrush or non-perishable food items, is necessary inside the school.
“If we can help support them in that sense and free the student up to access the best student they can be because they’re not worried about…how they smell to other kids,” said Abigail Padua, the 8th grade English teacher who proposed the idea to Anthony.”They [the students] can just focus on their education and social interactions with their peers.”
Just introduced in the school after the holiday break, Anthony said the closet isn’t available to students just yet as they’re preparing to fill its shelves with donated items from the community.
On a list of requested items, school administrators are asking for new school supplies including backpacks and notebooks, non-perishable foods like granola bars and canned soups, and toiletries like toothbrushes and sanitary napkins.
“Even though we provide that [sanitary napkins] at school, there might be a young lady who needs to take them home for use outside of school,” Anthony said.
Having past experience with York High’s Comfort Closet as a former assistant principal there, one thing Anthony said is missing from the list is laundry detergent in pod-form, or in a small enough package that students can put in their backpacks to carry home without anyone knowing about it.
Accessing the Comfort Closet for the student will require nothing more than visiting the guidance counselor’s office and asking the secretary to unlock it without any needed referral or permission from their teacher or principal.
A school in the York County School Division, Grafton Middle’s rate of “economically disadvantaged” students is relatively low. Even when compared to its three division counterparts, Grafton’s close to 18 percent of students who receive free or reduced lunch rates is the lowest in the area.
Anthony added that the rate doesn’t account for those who may qualify but don’t apply because of the stigma adolescent students feel when they receive those benefits. She said applications to qualify as economically disadvantaged drop dramatically during the middle and high school years.
After she’d helped one student who was in need of basic and essential items during the last school year, Padua said it was enough for her to look into resources available at the school and inspired the idea for the Comfort Closet.
“We should keep in mind, we don’t always see the whole picture when it comes to other people and there’s a lot more below the surface in each of us so we should always do our best to be kind and compassionate,” she said.
A box for Comfort Closet donations will be available to receive items at the school’s main office at 405 Grafton Drive, on school days from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Click here for more information and a list of requested items.
