It Takes A Village

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Hopefully Helpful School Nurse Tip: It truly does take a village! My students, school families, and staff are bless beyond measure to have the wonderful non for profit volunteer group- Moms Who Care at our school on a weekly basis!

Moms Who Care Mission

Their mission is simple- Their impact is huge!

Helping students achieve success by meeting essential needs such as:
clothing, hygiene products, school supplies, and after school snacks.

Are you a school nurse who:

collects stacks of clothes in your office cabinet "just in case"?
keeps a hidden stash of school supplies for students who need them?
keeps snacks for certain students you know will be hungry later in the day?
desperately wants to help more students meet their essential needs, but feel like you don't have enough time in the day?

Those statements described me, The School Nurse, years & years ago!

Then, one crisp fall day in 2009, the future founder of Moms Who Care (MWC)

worked up some courage, called the high school and asked if there was a staff member who would be interested in receiving gift bags full of hygiene products for students?

Thankfully, whoever answered the phone that day transferred the call directly to the school nurse's office! Little did the caller know, the service she offered was highly needed and we immediately took her up on the generous offer; and so, our village started!

At the time (2009) of the call, I had a large wooden cabinet in my office with curtains hanging on tension rods covering shelves overflowing with clothes, shoes, socks, hygiene products & a few random snacks for students. You can see in the below picture how my office looked many days. The floor covered with random donations waiting to be sorted and put on the shelves. The shelves were hidden behind the checkered curtains on the bottom right of the photo.

Now (2020), after offering services for over a decade to thousands of students,
my school family has a committed group of volunteers with the MWC organization who have a large room in the school (with windows) full of clothing displayed on department store style fixtures with custom shelving units lined with shoes, hygiene products, snacks and school supplies!

They also have a separate storage room for off season supplies with an area to sort through donations and organize items. All donations are graciously given by generous community members! To say my students are blessed is an understatement.

Although the logistics of the program have changed over the years,
the Moms Who Care mission has remained the same.

To help students achieve success by meeting essential needs such as:
clothing, hygiene products, school supplies, and after school snacks.

Typically, students who participate with the MWC program qualify for the free/reduced meal program. However, students are never turned away;

there are so many scenarios where a student might benefit from participating in the program and we would never want to deny help to a student who might benefit from the program.

Moms Who Care focuses on serving the student as a whole person.

The MWC volunteers understand when the basic needs of the student are met,

then the students are more prepared and ready to learn. Students who are signed up shop monthly by grade level. They are also allowed to go down as needed for specific items even if it isn't their assigned week to "shop".