Story by Discover Financial Services

On Fridays at Beechwood Elementary School in Whitehall, Ohio, a group of fifth graders have an important task: they deliver bags of food to each classroom for every single student to take home. Without the food kits on the weekends, the kids might go hungry.

School and district administrators say the bags, each filled with cereal, soup and snacks, are a lifeline to hard-working families who sometimes struggle to put food on the table as food costs rise. All 500 students at Beechwood Elementary qualify for free breakfast and lunch through the state based on their families’ incomes.

The food kits are provided through a partnership with Discover and the national non-profit Blessings in a Backpack, which works to alleviate weekend food insecurity for children. Research from the non-profit shows that when children were fed on the weekends, an overwhelming majority of students reported that their school attendance improved, and it was easier to learn.

“By Discover and Blessings in a Backpack doing this for us, we’re able to meet a need that financially we can’t provide,” said Kim Hurst, principal of Beechwood Elementary. “Once we know the basic student needs are met and know our students have something for the weekend, they’re not hungry and they’ll be ready to be the best version of themselves on Monday… you can’t put a price on that.”

Discover announced in 2022 it was moving its Customer Care Center in Ohio to Whitehall, a suburb just outside of Columbus. Immediately, the company began working with Whitehall City Schools to determine how it could support student achievement and parent involvement, said Tracey Colson, the district’s director of school improvement and family engagement.

Knowing that food insecurity was an issue in the community, Discover and Blessings in a Backpack committed to providing food kits for all Beechwood students during the 2023-2024 school year, said Dionne Williams, lead community outreach consultant for Discover.

“Driving success in local schools is a pillar of Discover’s community outreach efforts, and addressing socioeconomic barriers that may interfere with their achievement is a part of that,” Williams said. “Providing food on the weekends can help alleviate the stress and anxiety parents may experience and lets them focus on other things, such as helping their children with homework.”

Since October, a group of dedicated Discover employees have met on a regular basis to pack thousands of bags of food in just a few hours, a process that Colson saw firsthand and described as a “well-oiled machine.”

The kits contain breakfast, lunch and snack items for two days, and everything is fortified with either extra nutrients or proteins. Every bag contains a card with an uplifting message for each child. The Discover employees pack the kits in giant tubs, which are then picked up by Whitehall City Schools’ operations team and taken to Beechwood.

By May, Discover employees will have packed more than 14,000 food kits.

“Discover has truly been a huge blessing to Whitehall City Schools because they understand the need,” Colson said. “They understand how they can support and address the barriers that we know impact students’ attendance, academics and their behavior.”

Alicia Belin, a senior systems support specialist at Discover, has volunteered for different causes throughout the 14 years she has been at the company. Every opportunity to give back is meaningful but it resonates a little differently when you give back to your community, she said.

“It’s easy to take for granted the things we have in life and forget that others are not as fortunate,” she said. “It reminds me to be grateful and give kindness.”

At Beechwood Elementary, a tight-knit community with a diverse population, the students who pass out the food kits are all part of the school’s student council. Teachers then pack the kits in each child’s backpack. It’s not uncommon for children to request to take another bag home for a sibling.

Recently, the students in the school learned about kindness and how they can make a difference in the world. Hurst, the school’s principal, pointed to Discover as an example for the students.

“This is a partnership. It’s investing in our future,” she said. “To know someone who doesn’t even know them is looking out for their needs… and these are basic needs. How can we expect a child to learn if they’re not fed?”