Seminole County is Central Florida’s wealthiest yet the number of homeless students enrolled in its public schools has more than doubled in the last seven years.
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“There is a need here, a tremendous need,” said Jamie Washington, principal of Seminole High School’s 9th Grade Center in Sanford.
When classes start next week, a new resource center will open on Seminole High’s campus that will offer students food, toiletries and easy access to counselors and social workers. Similar centers are opening at four other schools around Central Florida.
The five centers, paid for by Addition Financial Foundation, aim to help some of Central Florida’s 20,000 homeless students and other needy youngsters whose families are struggling with the high cost of groceries.
In addition to Seminole High, the new facilities will open at Eustis Heights Elementary School in Lake County, at Meadowbrook Middle School in Orange County, at Discovery Intermediate School in Osceola County and at Deltona Middle School in Volusia County.
The center at Seminole High includes a walk-in pantry with dry goods, like canned soup, fruit cups and boxes of macaroni and cheese, toiletries, including soap, shampoo, deodorant and feminine hygiene products, and school supplies. Students are free to take needed items home to their families.
The center also offers a private bathroom, if students want to clean up, and a lounge with a love seat, a dining table, chairs and a microwave.
Each center costs up to $5,000, and all were designed by volunteers from Seminole State College’s interior design program.
“It’s a safe, comfortable space, because we don’t really know what their home space is like,” said Cristina Lehman, executive director of the Addition Financial Foundation. “So they at least have a comfortable space that’s calm for them to be in.”
The offices that house the school’s mental health counselor and social worker are nearby, so students can visit.
The goal is to help homeless students and others in difficult home situations take care of the basics so they can focus on their classes. Without assistance, that can be hard.
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“They’re focusing on safety needs. They’re focusing on their stomach is hurting. They’re hungry,” said Jillian Orleman, district homeless and foster care liaison for Seminole County Public Schools.
The number of homeless students shot up during the COVID-19 pandemic and has remained high, with a spike in recent years that officials blame, in part, on rising costs.
Seminole identified 1,507 homeless students in the 2018-2019 school year. That number has ballooned to 3,317, including 480 who do not live with their families, according to Orleman.
“These are students who are essentially navigating life on their own,” Orleman said. “They may have been kicked out of their home. They may have chosen to leave due to an unsafe situation. They’re living in shelters, in their vehicles, couch surfing.”
Seminole’s center is in a stand-alone building that also houses the school’s television production studio. The location was chosen because it is tucked away from the main campus so students can access it discreetly.
“This is something that can be embarrassing for them,” Orleman said. “We are trying to change the stigma. But you know, imagine all your other friends and peers aren’t going through this and you are.”
Taino’s Bakery donated $2,500 to stock the center with food and supplies the students can take home. Going forward, the district will have to find other community partners to help keep the center’s shelves full.
Addition Financial’s nonprofit has been helping to upgrade Central Florida public school campuses for the past nine years. Initially, it worked to makeover the classrooms of outstanding teachers.
Last year, the nonprofit shifted its focus to helping students and families struggling to obtain enough food and other necessities, and it built four centers, similar to the new centers opening this month, in public schools in Lake, Orange, Osceola and Seminole.
“I love that they have pivoted to these spaces that serve a number of students in the food pantries throughout our schools,” Seminole Superintendent Serita Beamon said. “This is a place for students to come, with dignity, and be able to address their needs.”
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