Kids in this small Washington town worry about food when school is out for summer

Summer can be tough for low-income students who depend on school for most of their meals. But it’s especially tougher for kids living in rural Washington. That’s because the hurdles to addressing food insecurity here are often more complicated, compared to urban areas.

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ach week Shelley Acuña tows her trailer full of bagged food to Concrete, Wash. Her first stop is Concrete Elementary School. Soon after she parks the truck, a handful of students come by to help her unload.

“Alright girlfriend, you got it,” said Acuña as she handed the bags to one of the students. “Just don’t hurt yourself, OK, ‘cause it’s heavy.”

The donation comes from a food bank in Burlington, Wash., about 30 miles away, where she and her fellow volunteers assemble.

“It started out with a simple, ‘Hey, can we get a couple of bags of food, you know, some extras?’ And I was like, ‘OK, we’ll do some little bits of things,'" Acuña said.

The response was overwhelming. School counselor Abbey Harrison said many kids eagerly wait for each week’s delivery.

“Our list started with like, 12 kids,” she said. “And now almost 70 families in the school are getting the food every week. So it’s been an overwhelming response of need and also gratitude.”

Concrete is a picturesque town in north central Skagit County. Historically, it provided raw materials that built the Pacific Northwest: lumber and cement. Those industries are now gone. Today, the major employers in the area are Puget Sound Energy and the Concrete School District.

But beneath this idyllic setting, poverty is an issue. So is food access. On the drive to town, along Highway 20, there are few food choices — a Red Apple store and a couple of gas stations with a limited food selection. Recent figures from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction show more than 74% of students at Concrete Elementary qualify for free and reduced meals.

There are food banks in the area but given how things are spread out and the limited transportation, getting to them is a challenge.

This is where Acuña’s weekly delivery helps. Each bag contains staples like cereal, peanut butter, or dried fruit, along with canned soup, instant ramen, and canned tuna.

“We try to do things that kids can have, that they can feed themselves, they don’t really need a parent to, you know feed them. Because some of them they have parents, but the parents aren’t really there or … sorry, I start crying about a lot of this stuff.”

Acuña personally understands what some of the kids are going through. She said her parents divorced when she was seven years old. What followed was a childhood marked by instability and hunger.

“I remember eating cat food, and I remember eating dog food and it’s because you’re hungry. You eat whatever is there, right? I used to eat fish tail just because my little brother liked the other piece of the fish and I would eat the fish tail because I was hungry.”

Acuña said these memories motivate her to help kids in need.

Acuña’s next stop is Concrete High School, where students greeted her with a hand cart. One of the teachers came out to say hi.

Debbie Zeiser teaches Family and Consumer Services, or what used to be called "Home Ec." She said that without Acuña’s food program, many students would be coming to school hungry.

“They are able to access this with very little shame, or paperwork, or ‘I have to tell other people,’” Zeiser said.

The concern now has shifted to how to get food to students during summer. Many school districts continue to offer meals in public spaces like community centers. But to do that in a town like Concrete is not as straightforward given the distance and limited transportation options.

Acuña hopes today’s drop off will tide them over for the next two weeks until she figures out what she could do for the coming months.