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CONTACT THE ENTERPRISE Jocelyn Robinson, Copy editor jrobinson@heraldnet.com

Anonymous parent salvages snacks at school

By Sarah Koenig
Enterprise reporter

Last fall, something mysterious started happening in Joan Kuhn's Read 180 class at Einstein Middle School.

Healthy snacks would appear, delivered to the classroom when she wasn't there or brought from the main office: cracker jacks, granola bars, bags of carrots, tangerines.

Read 180 teaches students basic reading skills and includes children from all walks of life.

"You can't learn when hungry -- the kids will say, 'Thank you, I'm so hungry!'" said Kuhn of the snacks. "They'll say, 'I didn't have breakfast and I didn't have lunch.'"

The mystery of the snack donor wasn't easily solved.

"This went on for months," Kuhn said.

Then Kuhn came face to face with the donor -- a parent whose child had graduated Einstein.

"One day she appeared at my door as she was going to drop (the snacks) off, and I said, 'Oh my gosh, are you the person who's bringing me these snacks?'" Kuhn said. "She got teary and was moved by it."

The parent chose to remain anonymous for the Enterprise story. She continues to bring snacks this year, as throughout last year, about once a month.

At elementary schools, there's a lot of awareness around feeding kids, but at middle school, where a teacher can have 150 students, hunger can pass by unnoticed, Kuhn said.

"I think people are not really understanding the demographics of Shoreline," Kuhn said. "We have a very diverse population here."

When hired at Einstein five years ago, Kuhn taught a reading program for struggling students after school -- 90 minutes a day, Monday through Thursday. Students took the activity bus home and often didn't get home until 6 p.m., Kuhn said. School starts at 8:30 a.m.

"You can imagine how long their day was," she said.

Fortunately, the class was held in the school's kitchen, and Kuhn had hot cookies she made coming out of the oven, milk, fruit and other snacks.

"I tried to mimic coming home to mom," Kuhn said. "It was a way of enticing them to come to class. I had furniture and dimmed lights and had lamps and books."

All 15 students came regularly to read and be read to, every day, she said.

However, the cost of feeding the students was too much over time, so Kuhn tried to write a grant. She quickly learned you can't get a grant for food, so turned to the school's PTA. Parent Doris McConnell stepped up. She found businesses, including Starbucks and grocery stores, to donate food.

Last year, McConnell's child moved to high school. By then, the after school reading program had closed due to budget cuts, but Kuhn continued to teach reading to struggling students during the school day.

Kuhn didn't know if anyone would take up the food project. Luckily, someone did.

"She needed no recognition. It's just a random act of kindness, done to benefit children," Kuhn said. "She's receiving nothing from this. It's humbling. (It's) sheer generosity."