Giving Back And Gaining Skills: Special Ed Students Operate Food Pantry At Broken Arrow High School

Special education students at Broken Arrow High School are learning important life skills by giving back to others.

The students help run a food pantry on campus.

We often think of food when we want to show someone we care.

Yoselin Leyva and her classmates are showing people in need that they care by stocking a food pantry and stuffing bags.

"It makes me feel good knowing that it's going to people that need it," said Yoselin.

Debbie McDaniel oversees the pantry. She and the students are passionate about meeting the needs of their classmates and families.

"I think giving back to our community is something we can do here,” Debbie said. “It makes our kids feel good to serve the other kids, and we make sure the kids who are working in the pantry know what it's for."

Not only is the food pantry serving over 400 people in Broken Arrow, but the students running it are learning skills that will prepare them for life beyond high school.

Debbie teaches Yoselin and the other kids organizational skills--like putting same-sized cans on each shelf--because she cares about their future.

"We try to teach them to face it the way a grocery store would face it so that they might have the opportunity someday to work in a grocery store," she said.

The pantry is not only full of food but opportunity, too, showing all of their students different kinds of care.