With the new school year on the horizon, a St. Albans resident is tackling the often-overlooked issue of food insecurity by delivering fresh produce to students in need at a South Jamaica elementary school.
Since 2022, Carmine Couloute has partnered with a local nonprofit and the administration at P.S. 52 – The Magnet School for Innovation, Exploration and Engineering, to fill a community fridge on the school’s campus.
She started the program through one of her annual back-to-school fundraisers, which raises money for P.S. 52, located at 178-37 146th Terrace, and other schools in the surrounding area. “The school told me that they had a lot of students living in shelters in the community, and therefore accessing fresh produce and groceries was an expense for the families in the area,” she said. “How can you focus on getting an education or being the best you can be when your stomach is grumbling?”
Couloute works with Southside Action Pact, a mutual aid organization that provides relief for residents dealing with food insecurity and quality-of-life issues. Together, they turned an old supply closet into a mini pantry, installed a community fridge and stocked the shelves with school supplies and canned goods.
Couloute secured a small grant last year from Driscoll’s, a food product supplier, which often brings free fresh berries and produce to fill the fridge. The grant lasted the school year, and Couloute and her partners have been applying for more grant funding since.
Day-to-day funding comes from Couloute and her partners at Southside Action Pact. She spends around $100 a week of her own money on fresh produce and canned goods, which her partners from the non-profit match in dollars or food donations. She said she is inspired by the school’s efforts to support the program.
“Since we gave them the community fridge, [the school] was able to purchase a deep freezer on their own,” she said. The deep freezer stores even more food as a part of the program. She added that Assemblymember Khaleel Anderson has also supported the program through donations and volunteering.
The pantry is open twice a day on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-10:45 a.m. and 4-5:30 p.m. for parents, guardians and students to access. Parents can also request food through the school, from Monday to Friday, with no appointment needed. Students whose families are unhoused or living in shelters are given priority through the school’s guidance and social work team. The program is only open to the families of P.S. 52 due to the pantry’s location inside of the school.
Couloute feels the program allows families a sense of security and stability during hard times. “They know that, for example, even after their kids leave school and they’re provided with lunch, that we have a space where if they don’t have the opportunities or they don’t have the resources to get food, they can grab something from here, take it home with them,” she said.
Much thought is taken into purchasing fresh produce for the families using the fridge. Items such as cucumbers, corn, potatoes, spinach, carrots and broccoli are readily available, as they can be cooked easily or eaten raw. “Even if you only have a stovetop, you’re still able to use the available produce,” she said. “One of the shifts that we saw is that because we’re getting more migrant students and more students living in shelters, a lot of the produce that we were buying in the past was too hard for them to cook, because they only had access to a microwave or stovetop.”
Much of Couloute’s passion for the community fridge program came from her lived experiences. She recalled her memories of standing in long lines with her mother to access the food pantry at local churches. Hosting the program inside the school alleviates feelings of embarrassment students may have as they receive vital assistance.
“Having to go and stand in line at a local church can feel a little embarrassing, so having it at a school, that’d be less embarrassing, because this is your drop-off, you come in, you don’t have to wait in a long line, you’re accommodated, people understand and you just go,” she said.
As for the program’s future, Couloute wants to secure another grant to expand the community fridge program to other schools in the area, such as Campus Magnet High School and I.S. 192 Middle School.
Any community member interested in giving monetary donations, shelf-stable goods and/or fresh produce can email connectingthediasporallc@gmail.com
