Each week, “Pop Quiz” features an interview with a member of Greater Houston’s education community. To suggest someone we should interview with an interesting story to tell, email us at education@houstonlanding.org.
Meet the interviewee
When Aldine ISD’s homeless liaison position fell vacant 13 years ago, the responsibilities “just landed” on desk of Efrain Uribe, a member of the district’s curriculum and instruction department at the time.
“From there, I went to trainings, and I really believe that we have an opportunity here to help kids. So I just kept it,” said Uribe, who also now serves as Aldine’s program director of Elementary Guidance, Counseling and Student Support Services.
This school year, Uribe leads Aldine ISD’s recently launched emergency food pantry, aiming to help vulnerable students facing homelessness and food insecurity.
Inside Odom Elementary School, the food pantry spans two classrooms filled with nonperishables available for students in need across the district. District leaders opened the pantry using about $35,000 from a federal grant, which limits food distribution to students in emergency situations.
Through the counselors on each campus, district leaders work to identify vulnerable students and deliver about five days worth of food in two boxes — one filled with snacks, the other filled with food to cook. Due to the food pantry’s limited size, Uribe said only counselors pick up the resources because they know the students the best. As of Tuesday, 260 children districtwide have used the emergency food pantry.
“I want to keep it going, and my goal is to eventually just have it for students that, whether you are considered homeless or not, you just need some help,” he said.
The Houston Landing spoke with Uribe about the district’s recent efforts and how they help students. To donate items to the food pantry, contact Uribe at efuribe@aldineisd.org. For more information on family resources in Aldine, click here.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
You’ve called it an emergency food pantry. What does “emergency” mean, and how is it different from a food pantry that might be open to more students?
The funding that we received through the grant … it was stipulated that it was for emergency situations only. Therefore, I have to follow those guidelines, right? If a parent comes to us and says, “I don’t have anything to eat today,” or the student comes to the teacher or the counselor and they say, “Man, I’m very hungry today, and we didn’t have anything to eat,” that in itself is an emergency. Those are the kids that we are trying to reach. Those are the families that we try to provide for.
Why arrange this through counselors at each school?
The counselors do serve as the campus homeless liaisons, so they have that dual role. Also, since I’m the program director of elementary guidance, I touch all the counselors and it’s easier, because I have that relationship with them already. Honestly, I wouldn’t know where to start it otherwise. The counselors play an imperative role to make this happen. I wouldn’t be able to have any of this if I don’t rely on the counselor. And again, it’s because they wear so many hats – we are social workers, we are CPS (Child Protective Services), first responders, you name it. The counselors know these students. So to me, it was just an actual progression of, oh, you have a kid who’s hungry and who’s homeless, we have these resources.
What challenges do you face to get this up and running?
For me, maybe an emergency is not having butter. Well, that’s not an emergency, right? I have something else. So the first hurdle was talking to the people who we received the grant from and say, “Hey, I want to make sure I stay within the guidelines so I don’t get penalized. So what are we talking about? Can we define the emergency?” So once we get that out of the way, I have to convince our finance department that we were going to do this within the guidelines of the grant. And once we got the permission from the finance people in our district, then it was getting the check ready, getting through the vendors, going to Sam’s and buying all the food that we had to do. It was like 16 or 17 of us with our cars going back and forth (to) Sam’s and back and forward. So it took us about, maybe, I don’t know, a whole day just to get this stuff in, and then a week to get it stacked and make it pretty, make it more user-friendly.
So those were the hurdles. And then once we had it out, the next thing was usage. We put the form out. I really honestly felt that, “Man, we are going to run out of food in the first week.” And two or three weeks passed, and we didn’t get anything. Nobody was coming to get the food. So I was freaking out. And then once I met with the counselors again and said, “We’re here. We have it. It’s ready. Let’s use it.” And we got more traction. So as we get the word out, now we’re getting more middle school, now we’re getting more high school counselors to participate. So now I feel that we are moving. So now the next challenge is, how do I keep it going? How do I make sure that we sustain growth?
What’s next for Aldine ISD’s emergency food pantry?
I want to keep it going in the sense that I want to make sure it is not a one-and-done deal with the grant and then it’s over. So my challenge in the next few months, and obviously in the summer, is to get more resources, period. Maybe this is more information that you’re asking, but when I started this job, we talked to the parents, and I will call them and say, “Hey, Mom, I know you’re living in a hotel. I know you’re in a shelter. Tell me what’s happening. What are your needs?” They will usually tell me their stories, and they would say, “Well, I don’t have a job, and I got evicted, I couldn’t pay my rent. I got evicted, and now I’m in a shelter. Now I’m in a hotel because I broke a lease and I’m not able to get into an apartment.”
But the stories have changed. Currently, we are getting most stories where the parent says, “Well, I have a job. Well, I even have two jobs, but I’m not able to make ends meet.” That’s kind of the population and how it has shifted, and I don’t know if we’re going to get more or less, but I know we are still going to have some needs.
On a more general note, what is something people typically misunderstand about students facing homelessness and food insecurity?
Doing this job is not easy, and I don’t mean my job. I’m talking about counselors, administrators, teachers. These kids come to school angry, upset, frustrated, hungry, maybe not even able to sleep for whatever many reasons, right? It can be challenging to feel empathy for some of our kiddos, and especially because you have very few cases or instances where parents want to play the system and they put a bad name for students who are experiencing homelessness. But I would invite everybody to see past that. You have a student who is experiencing homelessness living in shelters, hotels, cars. Sometimes, they’re living with somebody else because they cannot afford their own place. It’s not the kid’s fault. It’s not a student’s fault. They shouldn’t know better. If we can help them and be somehow understanding and extend in some ways, I think that will bring a little bit more care.
Angelica Perez is a general assignment reporter for the Landing’s education team. Find her @byangelicaperez on Instagram and X, or reach her directly at angelica@houstonlanding.org.
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