SALT LAKE CITY — Yazmin Maya stood in line at the Utah Food Bank's Mobile School Pantry at Jackson Elementary School on Thursday.
She pushed her baby boy, Oliver, in a two-seat stroller that doubled as a cart for groceries through the line of volunteers filling her bags.
"Our budget is very, very tight because of medical bills that came from (me) being diagnosed with a tumor in my head," said Maya, of Rose Park.
Doctors discovered the tumor after she started losing her hearing in March 2014 and found out she was pregnant just two weeks before she was to begin treatment in April 2014.
"For us, it is such a blessing to have all this and these people come over and dedicate a little time," Maya said, pointing to the white and red-trimmed van and groceries in her stroller.
The Mobile School Pantry started just last month, according to Ginette Bott, Utah Food Bank chief development officer. In its first month, it has served 16,000 individuals and students at 33 schools.
At Jackson Elementary, Bott said the Mobile School Pantry served 197 students from 70 families for a total of 368 clients in September.
"That's a huge impact in a neighborhood that doesn't have a pantry or for those that don't have transportation or use public transportation," she said. "If you are going to the store, you're not going to buy a gallon of milk or a watermelon or fresh fruit. You are going to buy things you can transport."
The Mobile School Pantry provides emergency food assistance for those in crisis. The mobile pantry visits schools once a month to serve families that school administrators identify as qualifying for assistance, according to a statement from the Utah Food Bank. The program began in 2012 with a pilot program between Lincoln Elementary and Target.
The Utah Food Bank has partnered with local businesses to sponsor and staff the mobile pantries. Businesses provide $4,000 and eight to 10 volunteers to provided qualifying schools with monthly visits for the nine months of the school year.
For Jackson Elementary, Fidelity Investments sponsored the mobile pantry and has donated time and money for several projects, ranging from painting the school to helping the violin program, Principal Jana Edward said.
"It lets my students know that an entire community cares about their well-being, not just wanting to put food in their stomachs but every element that goes into a quality education," Edward said.
Schools qualify when more than 50 percent of their students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. Jackson Elementary is a school of about 450 students, where 81 percent are minorities and 89 percent qualify for such lunches, according to Edward.
Bott said 1 in 5 children face daily food insecurity. According to Feeding America, of which the Utah Food Bank is the Utah partner, about 1 in 6 Utahns in 2013 generally faced food insecurity.
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