Del Valle elementary school provides meals to families in first school pantry

DEL VALLE, Texas - Refrigerators and shelves are fully stocked at Creedmoor Elementary in Del Valle, giving students and their families access to meals after school hours.

"It is a blessing to be able to have a pantry located inside the heart of our school, allowing the parents and the staff to have access to food," said Creedmoor Elementary parent Yaquelin Cornejo. "It is not just any food we are talking about; healthy choices for our students and our kid."

The Feeding Futures program is a collaboration between Del Valle ISD and the Central Texas Food Bank to provide at least 30 meals per student, per month, based on student enrollment.

"The feeding food pantry program is an incredible resource for students and their entire families," said Sari Vatske, president and CEO of the Central Texas Food Bank. "It provides choice variety access to fresh foods, new foods, nutritious food, and not only does it provide that, but we also have recipes, nutrition education, benefits assistance."

The items in the pantry were donated to the food bank by funders, including HEB.

"It’s about having fresh produce, it is about having fresh dairy, it's about having fresh protein," DVISD superintendent Dr. Annette Tielle said.

"We have things like pulled chicken, salmon, we have lentils, chickpeas, fruits and produce, salad, spinach, dairy like Greek Yogurt," Cornejo said. "Seeing this overwhelms my heart with joy because I grew up knowing how bad it is not to have access to food items."

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Del Valle was selected as the first of many school districts the Central Texas Food Bank is partnering with.

"I am very, very big on nutrition," Dr. Tielle said. "I know that children who come to school nourished have a better day, they are more attentive, they are more engaged, the behavior is better, they learn better, but it is not just about full bellies, it is about having full better with healthy food inside those bellies."