“Enlightenment, Engagement, and Empowerment” is the slogan of the Jennings School District. Through the implementation of these values, Jennings has created a national reputation as an innovator that provides wrap around services to both the students and community residents. In this same spirit, the students of the JETS building has been helping members of the Jennings community with food insecurity since 2012 by running our very own food pantry. Currently JETS students provide food packages for between 70 and 100 families bi-monthly.
Recently, Jennings has been afforded the opportunity to develop a plan to address additional gaps in food security. Five JETS Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG) students will develop a plan to address food insecurity in the No Kid Hungry Innovation Challenge on October 30, in Jefferson City with the purpose of maximizing ways to provide more kids with nutritious foods, help ensure all student have access to nutritious meals and create more scalable and sustainable ways to ensure kids in the community are not going hungry. For this competition, JETS JAG students will brainstorm and design an actionable solution to addressing food insecurity in our schools, compete with schools across the state, and have the chance at walking away with $1000.00 to bring our ideas to life. Wish us luck in this next venture of Enlightenment, Empowerment, and Engagement!