Highland High’s Holiday Helping Hands

The holiday season is a time to celebrate with friends, family, and food.
But in the Salt Lake City School District, and at Highland, food is not always as plentiful as it should be during holiday celebrations.
Highland has a very diverse student population. The minority enrollment is 37% of the total population and 30% is economically disadvantaged, with 27% qualifying for free lunch. This program provides free or reduced priced breakfast and lunch for students who qualify.
This helps students receive food and nutrition throughout the year, but these meals are not provided over winter and Thanksgiving breaks.
Mindy Smith and the Highland Family Support group aim to make sure no students go hungry during the holidays.
Throughout November and December, there were multiple food and hygiene drives for the Highland pantry. Smith wants to make sure that their pantry is stocked up.
“We probably have five or six food and hygiene drives. We want to get those supplies stocked up for the rest of the year,” Smith said.
Every day, Smith and many community members work in the pantry by sorting food, clothes, and supplies that people need to have. In the holiday season, they work twice as hard to ensure that every student can be provided with everyday essentials like food.
In November, community members came together to create Thanksgiving boxes for families.
People donated money to buy food items, but they also donated the food themselves. The food that was purchased included turkeys, mashed potatoes, pies, fruits and other classic Thanksgiving foods. This allowed everyone to have a Thanksgiving meal. Community members also came together to assemble and deliver the boxes.
Brett Berg, a teacher aid for Mindy Smith, personally saw the difference that the community’s generosity makes, specifically when they delivered Thanksgiving boxes.
“It went really well, it was really cool how all the neighbors came together to help Mindy,” Berg said. “They all took time out of their evenings to come support the students and families Highland.”
Not only do they support families with food, but they help them with items that students need as well. In December, Smith and the Highland community do Sub-for-Santas.
The Sub-for-Santa program at Highland provides holidays for families. People in the community buy presents for a specific family and then wrap them. Finally, they deliver the gifts so they can open presents.
The last large service project is the Holiday Care Packages. The packages contain daily necessities like socks, hygiene kits, and more to help families around this busy time of year.
Smith believes that this holiday season will be special because of the amount of help Family Support has received from the community. This year the community has provided more than it has in the past.
“The community has been a lot more generous this year. It seems like we are going to give a holiday to more families and students than ever before,” Smith said.
Parents, teachers, and students of Highland have come together to create something remarkable. Hundreds of students will be able to have a holiday that they might not have had before.
With the amount of help that Family Support has received this year, so many families and students will get to celebrate a holiday. The more help that they get, the more holidays that they can give.
“The thing I have learned in this job is that people are kind and good and if you ask them for help, they will help,” Smith said. “I have been really impressed with our community and how they care about the students of Highland High.”
Smith and the community have worked hard to make sure everyone is cared for. Smith gets a lot of support from the community through the Highland pantry.
The pantry is located at Highland. It has cooking supplies, food, and snacks for anyone who needs them. It also has clothes, shoes, and other accessories that students can look at and take for themselves. Hygiene supplies, cooking supplies, and more can be found there as well.
Berg explains the reaction of people who he has helped in the pantry and how it has helped them.
“They were happy. They were saying thank you,” Berg said. “They always had a smile on their faces. They were excited about it.”
Smith believes that service helps the people who are giving and the people who are receiving. She wants to continue growing too and make a bigger impact.
“I just want to get bigger and better,” Smith said.
Different services and supplies are available all year long for students. There are many opportunities for people who want to serve as well. Anyone interested should reach out to Mindy Smith or anyone in the Highland Pantry.