Community schools coordinator details food and family services, district schedules April 2 resource fair

Iris Flores, the district’s community schools grant coordinator, told the board about community-engagement work funded through the district’s community-schools grant. Flores summarized partnerships, food distribution and plans to increase family-facing services, and urged the district and town to collaborate on a Family Resource Center for clothes, food, and other supports.

Flores said the district coordinates monthly free-food distributions and partners with local organizations including the California Community Food Bank, Woodlake Family Resource Center and Visalia Family Resource Center. She told the board that the program currently serves between about 100 families per month and that at a recent distribution the operation served roughly 350 families; she said roughly 100 families indicated they learned about distributions through ParentSquare. Flores said the Family Resource Center concept (which staff discussed informally during planning) aims to provide clothing, food,…