In a press release from Wasatch Peaks Credit Union last week, it was announced that it and the Ogden School Foundation had entered into a partnership where Wasatch Peaks will provide a $50,000 donation to provide ongoing food pantry support for the district’s three Student Support Centers at Ben Lomond High School, Ogden High School, OTECH High School and the Family Support Center at Odyssey Elementary school. This donation is the start of a fund that will help boost those programs well into the future.

Ogden School Foundation Executive Director Brynn Murdock told the Standard-Examiner that Wasatch Peaks has helped support the Ogden School Foundation and Ogden School District many times before.

“They met with us and just wanted to know how else they could support our students,” she said. “We came up with this idea together. We have our four operating support centers within the school district that were all fully operational last year. … That’s where our students are accessing the food pantries, they can wash their clothes in the washing machines, they can have showers and get academic support.”

Murdock said, altogether, the four centers were accessed over 3,750 times last school year. Between August and October of this year, there have been more than 2,500 visits logged.

She said that they had mostly been relying on in-kind donations and some monetary donations to keep moving forward.

“As we were looking at the long-term sustainability of these centers, we really wanted to create an endowment where the spendable interest from that endowment can be used perpetually, year-after-year, to purchase food items for the food pantries within each of these four centers,” she said. “Regardless of the number of donations that come in throughout each year, we always have a set amount of funding available for those food pantries — that’s what Wasatch Peaks Credit Union and their foundation did.”

Murdock said the endowment will help to fill gaps in donations as time goes along.

Spence McArthur, executive vice president at Wasatch Peaks Credit Union, told the Standard-Examiner that they’re happy to help mitigate a major issue that has cropped up in too many students’ lives.

“To think about how hard it is for them just to go to school and do lessons and homework, but then have to focus on the next meal, that they’re hungry or something of that nature … that kind of hit,” he said. “These kids shouldn’t have to deal with hunger when they have to deal with a bunch of other challenges and struggles and things that just come with everyday life.”

Murdock said having this endowment in place will go a long ways to keeping the centers sustainable for years to come.

“As our students become more aware that there are resources, I think the utilization will continue to increase,” she said. “The point for the endowment, the perpetual funding, is that it allows us to continue to serve and meet the needs, regardless of what is going on in the community.”

She said having the resource centers in place ultimately benefits all students in the Ogden School District.

“We truly believe, as a foundation and district, that our students are capable of finding success and doing great things,” she said. “Sometimes, circumstances outside of their control can make it difficult to realize that success. Having resources like the food pantries, the support center and the resource center really help every student have those basic needs met so that they can take advantage of those opportunities.”

Donations will still be accepted going forward. For more information, visit https://www.ogdenschoolfoundation.org/o/ogdenschoolfoundation/page/student-support-centers