OLATHE, Kan. — Twice a month during the school year, a collaborative event takes place withOlathe Public Schools to assist its students and their families in need.
"In the Olathe School District, what we truly do is care about each and every student," said Heather Schoonover, director of community development for Olathe Public Schools. "So we have collaborated with all the social service agencies in Johnson County, and what we do is make sure that they are getting access to work, healthcare, housing, child care assistance, food, utility assistance and any academic need they might have within the school district."
Schoonover said the need for the program, called McKinney-Vento, is great.
"McKinney-Vento is for those families that lack a fixed, regular, adequate regular nighttime residence," Schoonover said. "Last school year, we saw 476 of those students within our school district alone.
But she said that's just the tip of the iceberg.
"We have many families that qualify for free and reduced lunch," Schoonover said. "So we're looking at thousands and thousands. What we try to do every other Tuesday is get about 14 families within the door, and truly, that's breaking down barriers for those families."
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Schoonover said the collaborative effort with Johnson County services is helping create access to resources. Volunteers and agencies are working together to provide a variety of services, from utility assistance to warm items to have at night.
"We have people walking through the door today who will be sleeping on the floor tonight," Schoonover said. "And so having a pillow and a blanket and someone just taking five minutes to donate a pillow means a lot."
Numerous volunteers have spent time organizing donated items.
"We say take whatever you want," one volunteer said. "It's just a community getting together, trying to help people."
Tami Lundgren, associate pastor at Colonial Presbyterian Church, brought in healthy snacks from her church.
"We bring apples here to Impact Olathe to help families have a little bit of a nutritional value," Lundgren said. "And we pray over them and just want to be there for the families."
Leaders said this collaborative effort is a win for everyone.
"When families and students access these resources, for teachers in the classrooms and our school district, we are seeing that they're coming to school and their attendance is better," Schoonover said.
Schoonover said Impact Olathe is not the only event Olathe Public Schools is part of when it comes to helping families in need.
"We do have the back-to-school outreach, we have family nights," Schoonover said. "Each and every one of our schools are helping, so we look at making every day count — we can't do it without the community helping us."
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