"What About The Kids?": Making Sandwiches During the Tacoma Teachers' Strike

Seattlest food writer Tamiko is also a parent--of kids in the Tacoma School District. For the last week, she's been at home, with her kids, while the teachers have been striking. Last night, a tentative agreement was reached, and students are slated to return to school on Friday. Still, plenty of children who rely on the school's lunch program for their first 2 meals every day will be left in limbo for another day. Yesterday, Tamiko visited the food bank, to see who was helping out.

During the Tacoma teachers strike, so many community members wondered “what about the kids?” We were especially concerned by the numbers that the strike highlighted: third-largest school district in the state, more than half of Tacoma public school students (about 18,000) who qualify for free breakfasts and lunches served at school. We decided to head to our nearest food bank, St. Leo’s Food Connection, to see how we could help out.

Crowded next to barrels and boxes of donated food, we found ourselves at a sandwich-making table. We chatted with striking teachers, guidance counselors, parents, college students, and Tacoma elementary school kids.

Over slices of packaged ham and bologna, Franz’s white and whole wheat bread, and American cheeses, we met people from across the city, including the North End and the highly diverse east and northeast segments. In the 2 hours that we volunteered, we and about 25 other volunteers made close to 500 sandwiches. As we were leaving, more volunteers came in with grocery bags full of loaves of bread and jars of peanut butter and jelly. We dropped off our bags of shelf-stable 2% milk and apple juice boxes, along with boxes of granola bars and tuna salad meals.

“As Kevin [Glackin-Coley, director of Food Connection] says, it’s a drop in the bucket,” said James Harper, program coordinator for St. Leo’s Summer Meals Program. “But a lot of small drops can make a difference.” Harper expressed deep gratitude for the volunteers who came with donations of food and time, and estimated that at least half of the volunteers were teachers on strike.

As we type, it seems the 7-day strike by Tacoma teachers is finally nearing its end. But hunger in the community does not end. St. Leo’s Food Connection also runs “Food Bank in a Backpack,” which serves 430 low-income students in the district, giving students a set of portable and relatively healthy meals for the weekend.

As food writers and community members, we share James Harper’s hope that the momentum of giving to food banks will continue into the school year. Not everyone making sandwiches at our table agreed with the strike--including some teachers--but everyone agreed that we wanted to help the students.