Teachers seldom get the recognition they deserve, after all they teach our kids math and who really wants to do that? Joking aside, Brooke Goins, a teacher at Jacksboro Elementary School, said a young student recently asked her “when the lady that puts food in his backpack was coming.”
The teacher posted the story on Facebook on October, 2 saying she was brought to tears when one of her students “so innocently talked about food, and the lack of it.”
The “lady that puts food in his backpack” was actually the school’s guidance counselor. Goins wrote the guidance counselor would give him food when “he was out of it at home and needed more.”
Not knowing the counselor’s schedule due to the shortened week, Goins made it her mission to get some food in this little boy’s belly.
The young teacher described the conversation saying, “He told me he was out of it [food] at home and needed more. Of course I asked what was in the bag that he liked so much. I asked if it was the macaroni bowls or the crackers, he said no. I asked if it was the spaghetti o’s, he laughed and told me no that they didn’t have those. Then it happened… he looked at me and said, ‘those little o’s (as he made a small circle with his hand), we don’t have those at my house, but when I do have them they give me a warm belly and help me sleep.'”
Food isn’t something children should ever have to worry about and the teacher thought just that. Goins said that she “lost it” and “cried in front of 20 little people. No kid should ever be hungry, ever.”
Goins rallied the troops — she got a bunch of teachers in on the plan to buy some food for the little guy. She said, “Remember, hearing people say that we spend all of our money in our classrooms? We spend it to make sure that our kids have what they need to succeed, and today we bought food.”
The 21-year-old said “I did not write this for anyone to get praise, nobody did it for the praise. I want people to know that teachers are humans, we love your kids and want the very best for them. Some days we get frustrated and feel overwhelmed, but today we did what was best for a child. Will it show on a test score? Nope! Do we care? Nope!”
Today I cried at work. Not because I hate my job, or that it is just too hard (it really is). Today I cried for a child,…
Posted by Brooke Goins on Wednesday, October 2, 2019
Goins said her group of teacher pals has started a food pantry for the students of Jacksboro Elementary. Those looking to donate food or hygiene products can send them to: 164 Jacksboro Elementary School Road in Jacksboro, Tenn., zip code 37757, attention: food pantry.
COMMENTS POLICY: We have no tolerance for messages of violence, racism, vulgarity, obscenity or other such discourteous behavior. Thank you for contributing to a respectful and useful online dialogue.