Meeting needs, finding blessings at Gainesville School District

Tucked away on the Gainesville School campus, a humble building hums with the energy of open hearts and open arms, a blessing both to the students who rely on its services and to the devoted staff who feel fortunate to provide them.

Each day, the sound of morning showers blends with the constant hum of washers and dryers. Packages are opened and organized and bags are packed with food and household items, ready for students to take home for the weekend. Shoeboxes are unpacked, clothing sorted from racks and brand new packages of socks and undergarments are carefully prepared and situated inside cabinets for those who will need them. In closets and back rooms, other items like trapper keepers, feminine hygiene products, school supplies and coats are stored for future distribution. 

It’s the effort behind those doors that makes the Gainesville School’s Community Resource Center more than just another room. It’s the hub that provides the essentials students need to succeed both in school and in life. 

The building itself has had many chapters as past lives - serving as the band and choir classrooms a couple of decades ago, then it was used for the superintendent’s office and Board of Education meeting room until last year. 

After the school obtained a piece of property across High School Drive, the superintendent’s office and board room were moved to a large building there (that formerly housed Real Life Church), and the district suddenly found itself with something it had long needed: room to build a true Community Resource Center.

Today, it holds more heart and help than anyone passing by could guess. Three different organizations, Convoy of Hope, the Youth Empowerment Project (YEP) and Care to Learn, come together inside the hub to meet students’ needs in a variety of ways. Together, they form a busy, bustling center where students can get what they need at school and at home.

The buzz of work is overseen by Gainesville’s Care to Learn Coordinators Brenda Frye, Nicole Wallace and Allisa  West and school social worker Misty Cullipher, a group of bright, smiling faces that immediately help make students feel at ease. 

Convoy of Hope:

Providing food and basic supplies

One of the groups that operates from the community resource center is Convoy of Hope, a faith-based humanitarian organization whose driving passion is “to feed the world and deliver hope where it’s needed most.” At Gainesville, Convoy of Hope provides pallets of necessities, free of charge every month to be distributed to students in need. 

“Everything you see on a pallet is from Convoy of Hope,” Cullipher said while giving Times staff members a tour of the facility recently. The pallets she referenced filled most of the main room of the space. 

“Everything we get from them is completely free. We get about one truckload a month, somewhere between 7 to 10 pallets,” Cullipher said. “Sometimes it’s food, sometimes it’s hygiene, sometimes it’s cleaning wipes... It can really be anything. They guarantee us a protein, a sweet treat or some kind of drink like a Body Armour and then a household [item].” All of those supplies are used to fill bags for the backpack program, the main service project for the second organization, Gainesville’s chapter of YEP (Youth Empowerment Project). 

Youth Empowerment Program:

Operating Gainesville’s ‘Backpack program’

YEP, a student-based service club with chapters across the state, empowers students to positively impact their fellow classmates and greater community through service projects and fundraising efforts. 

The main service project for Gainesville’s YEP chapter is the backpack program. The name comes from its earliest years, when the program provided a free backpack to students in need, which was filled with snacks and home necessities each Friday. The students used the contents to fill gaps in food during the weekend when hot school breakfasts and lunches weren’t available to them. They would then bring the backpack back to school at the beginning of the next week, where they were repacked for the following weekend. 

Today, the program still operates in much the same way - except the backpack part has been replaced with paper grocery sacks or other single-use bags, eliminating the need for students to remember the backpack each time and streamlining YEP’s process to get the bags all packed and distributed to the extensive list of recipients. 

“We have about 200 kids right now on our backpack list that receive the food bags every week,” Cullipher said. She explained that YEP tries to think ahead for ways to meet additional needs at times when students may go extended periods of time without food. “So like this week, they’re getting a full grocery bag full of food because they’re out of school for Thanksgiving break for 9 days. So instead of just snacks, it is more meal-type foods like spaghetti noodles, spaghetti sauce, green beans...”

With 74 percent of Gainesville students qualifying for free or reduced lunch, Cullipher says the need is clear, and the YEP students gladly volunteer to help their classmates avoid hunger that they may experience at home. The bags are distributed to students in preschool, elementary school, junior high and high school each week. 

“The main funder of YEP and the backpack program is Mr. Bobby Grisham and his donations made through his peanut sales,” Cullipher said, referencing the 92-year-old Gainesville man who sets up a table at ballgames across the area, selling packages of peanuts and popcorn to use for backpack programs at both Gainesville and Dora Schools. 

Through matches from the Masonic Home of Missouri’s Creating a Partnership Program, Grisham has helped raise about $40,000 for the local kids since 2003. Those efforts have brought his statewide recognition, including Senior Service Award, presented by then-Missouri Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe in 2021.

Gainesville’s Care to Learn:

Filling health, hunger and hygiene needs 

The last organization that is part of the community resource effort is Gainesville’s Care to Learn program, which aims to help students with health, hunger and hygiene support. Gainesville has been part of the statewide Care to Learn network since 2016, but it has expanded and grown exponentially this year, Frye said.

“Here at Gainesville, we didn’t have the space to offer a lot of the stuff we now have until just a couple of years ago. The needs were still being met, just not in the same way,” she explained. “When I first started here, they had all of the Care to Learn stuff at the elementary in the back of a teacher’s room, and there were just certain times a day when you could go in there and get stuff. It was crowded and just hard to manage.”

Cullipher said the high school Care to Learn program was also operating at that time but faced similar space issues. “It was all in a closet, a true closet, shoved floor to ceiling with items packed in milk crates.”

The pair say they’re thrilled to now have the extra room in the community resource center to really spread out and expand services. “We’re definitely making use of the space that has been provided to us,” Frye said. 

The Gainesville chapter of Care to Learn is a 501c3 non-profit organization, and all donations given to the effort are tax-deductible. There are several local residents and businesses who have donated, some have even set up monthly recurring donations that are automatically withdrawn from their bank accounts. Also, it’s worth noting that currently, DESE reimburses the Gainesville Care to Learn chapter for most expenses it incurs, which means the chapter basically can use a donation amount twice; however, Frye says that extra funding may be ending soon. 

In addition to food and drinks, cleaning supplies, shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, feminine hygiene products and toiletries, the Care to Learn program is able to pay for and provide other types of items to fill students’ needs - as long as they are within the health, hunger and hygiene umbrella. 

Frye and Cullipher say the district has several students who live in camper trailers, storage sheds-turned-tiny houses or other structures that aren’t always outfitted with electricity, running water and/or a reliable heat source - which often leads to gaps in basic necessities. The pair says they’re always happy to be able to help those families out in whatever ways they can. 

Sheets and sleeping bags are stocked and available for students who may struggle with proper warmth in winter. Hygiene bins hold everything from toothbrushes to head-lice treatments, which can be a lifeline for families. “If you have four kids, and the [lice] shampoo costs $20 for each kid. That’s a really big expense for someone who is just barely making it,” Frye said. “So we can help with that.”

Private shower and washer and dryer

One of the most transformative additions is the new private shower located inside the community resource room. Cullipher said that the blessing came from a simple conversation earlier this year. 

“We were over in Bakersfield the day after the tornado hit, because we had just gotten a Convoy of Hope shipment and had lots of stuff we could offer,” Cullipher said. “So, we went over there in our school van with everything we had. Brenda and I were working alongside someone else who had brought food. She knew about the things we were doing and that we’d expanded the space. So, we were just chit-chatting about all of that, and I told her that my dream was to get a shower in a private space, so these kids were not having to shower in the locker room and then walk through school with their hair wet and having other kids know they were showering at school. It’s just kind of a dignity thing for them to have that privacy. We had a good conversation, and I didn’t think much about it after that.”

But the next week, she received a call from the woman, who told her she’d been thinking about their conversation and said her family would like to pay for the shower to be built. “We were absolutely shocked,” Cullipher said. “It was so, so very generous. And it’s made such a difference for these kids.” 

Now, the staff members schedule students’ shower times during less busy times of the day when other students aren’t going to be inside the community resource center. All soaps and hair products are provided, along with towels and washcloths. A vanity is available with a hair dryer, allowing students to avoid the wet hair situation that once caused them embarrassment. “Now, the other students truly don’t know they’re showering here,” she said.

The students walk out with clean hair, warm clothes and a renewed sense of pride. “To see some of their faces afterward, it’s just a good feeling. You know how it feels after you get a good shower,” Cullipher said. “It just changes everything.”

Clothing and shoes

A lot of times, after the students have showered, they are brought into the community resource center’s clothing room to pick an outfit out. Other times, staff members connect with students in need in other ways to bring them there. 

The large space is filled with racks of clothing in all different sizes. Shoe racks line both exterior walls, filled with hundreds of pairs of shoes - many brand new in the boxes. 

“We have everything from tiny to adult - basically from 4T to 4X,” Frye said. 

School-spirited Gainesville Bulldog clothing and gear hang neatly in one area, as well as professional business clothing needed for participation in the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) club. “And if they want to participate in FFA and can’t afford to buy the [required] official dress, we’re going to get it for them,” Cullipher said. 

Brand new bras, underwear, socks and other essentials are organized and labeled in attractive black cabinetry located in the center of the room. 

Everything is available, free of charge, to the students who need it. 

Sharing with others

The sharing stretches beyond the students too. 

Excess Convoy of Hope items, like pallets of Hostess snack cakes that would be expiring soon, squeeze applesauce packets or Depends adult disposable undergarments, get redistributed to the county jail, the nursing home, WIC, the health department, the food pantry or the Options Pregnancy Center. 

“Beggers can’t be choosers,” Cullipher said. “So we take anything they’ll give us. But sometimes it just doesn’t fit with who we’re distributing it to. So we find other ways to get those items to people who can use them. Nothing goes to waste.”

She says that redistribution is allowed under the rules of Convoy of Hope, sharing items with other organizations, as long as items are not being sold. 

Finding those who have needs to fill

Cullipher and Frye say that a lot of times, students who are in need find the community resource center themselves. Other times, staff help put students in touch with the services. “And sometimes it’s just a matter of letting them know we have it. I pulled one girl aside, privately, without anyone else around said ‘Wouldn’t it be a great day for a shower? Here’s a towel, here’s a washcloth. You can pick out any outfit you want, brand new underwear, brand new socks. We can do it now, and then I’ll have your clothes washed and dried and in your locker by the end of the day.’ That way no one knows and she can have a new, clean set for the next day. She was thrilled for the opportunity,” Cullipher said.  

At the elementary school level, the system works a little differently. Because younger students can’t walk into the resource center themselves, needs are often identified through teachers, phone calls with parents or simple conversations with students and staff. Frye maintains a website that allows teachers to send her a private message when they notice a need a student might have a health, hunger or hygiene need.

“If we notice something or a teacher notices something, we usually have a conversation with the kid. Then we call home and say, ‘We noticed their shoes are falling apart. Do they need new shoes?’ And sometimes they do, and sometimes they don’t. Sometimes it’s more of a situation where they were at their dad’s house and left their shoes at their mom’s - or maybe they have new shoes but don’t want to wear them. But it lets us get a gauge on the needs and also opens doors to other conversations,” Frye said. 

“Recently, I’ve been working with churches that want to help with Christmas gifts. So I’ve been reaching out to parents about their kids’ Christmas lists. And it's funny how the needs come out. Some have said they need beds and mattresses, and they’re asking for those items for Christmas. Well, that’s stuff that Care to Learn can pay for. So we can fill those needs - and the kids can also get Christmas presents from whoever it is that wants to shop for them. So, there are a lot of conversations that happen with the parents, especially at the younger ages, that lead to those connections.”

Both Frye and Cullipher come from backgrounds shaped for this type of work. “We’re able to approach it from a resource standpoint. Brenda worked at the social services office here, and she has a chaplaincy background. I’m a licensed social worker and still work at the hospital in Mountain Home on the weekends and at other times. So, we’re used to connecting people with resources. If there’s a need, we’re happy to help. We’ll ask ‘Have you ever had Medicaid? And they say, ‘No, we just moved here and don’t have transportation.’ Well, we can help them with that. So, we’re able to kind of triage their needs just by asking general questions,” Cullipher said. 

“And 90 percent of the time, people are receptive and grateful. But there are times when people don’t want our services. Which is OK. We’re just trying to let them know it’s available,” she said. 

For Gainesville students struggling beyond the bookwork of school, the community resource center has become a lifeline. Every shelf, rack, closet, appliance and pallet tells that story. It’s a place built on dignity. A place built on heart. A place where needs are met quietly… and lives are changed quietly, too.

Find out more or support the effort

Parents or students who are interested in learning more about the services at the community resource center can reach out to Brenda Frye at bfrye@gainesville.k12.mo.us or Misty Cullipher at mcullipher@gainesville.k12.mo.us. Inquiries can also be made by phone by calling the elementary school at 417-679-4416 or the junior high and high school at 417-679-4200. All services are free of charge, and there is no income or other guidelines or required for the services. 

Those who would like to donate to help fund the programs can send a check, made out to Gainesville YEP or Gainesville Care to Learn, to the school at 422 Bulldog Drive, Gainesville, Mo. 65655. Money given to Gainesville’s Care to Learn chapter are tax-deductible. 

Donations to Care to Learn can also be made online at caretolearn.org/gainesville. Scroll down toward the bottom of the webpage and click “Donate to Care to Learn - Gainesville.” Donations can be submitted as a one-time payment or a recurring monthly payment. It’s worth noting that Gainesville’s chapter of Care to Learn currently receives a reimbursement grant from DESE for most expenses incurred, allowing donated funds to last twice as long.