ROANOKE, Va. (WFXR) – EnCircle Minnick Schools helps students ages five to 22, who have faced challenges in public schools, reach their academic goals. One of them is located in Roanoke, and now it is doing more than helping them academically.
The school hosted a safety and abundance fair on Friday, and part of the festivities included the opening of the new abundance food pantry. What was once an old library just got renovated, and the space is now used to help feed students and their families in need.
“Some of the students here are financially unstable,” Jonah Caldwell, a ninth-grade student at the Minnick School, said. “If they got food donations from (the pantry), they would be able to better support themselves and their parents in times where they need food that’s necessary.”
Students can find other essential items, along with food, inside the pantry. Anyone in the Minnick school, whether they’re parents or children, can use it.
It’s also open for people to donate food there or take some home.
“I believe that no child can really learn until they have a full belly, and until they feel like they’ve been taken care of,” Ashley Morales, a philanthropy coordinator at the school, said. “Knowing how things have been for families over the last several years since the pandemic, things have been hard on everyone, and we recognize that.”
One of the big contributors to the pantry is Larry Schoff, a retired Air Force veteran and educator. He has helped EnCircle Minnick schools for almost a decade.
He and his wife started a food drive at their church during the pandemic, and most of the food goes back to the Minnick Schools, including the pantry.
“The program is simple,” he said. “It’s just helping people that normally are ignored by the rest of the community, and it’s something we’ve been blessed and been able to do.”
The pantry has a plaque dedicated to Larry’s wife Ruth Louise Schoff, who passed away.