By 1808Delaware
For more than 1,100 Westerville students, the end of the school week now comes with something more than a backpack full of papers and assignments. It comes with food for the weekend, and the quiet assurance that someone in the community is paying attention.
That commitment was recognized May 7, when Westerville City Schools received WARM’s 2026 Hand Up Award during the Westerville Community Prayer Breakfast. The annual award honors individuals or groups for innovation, initiative, dedication and compassion in serving the Westerville community.
A Partnership Built Around Students
District leaders accepting the award included Superintendent Angie Hamberg, Board President Kristy Meyer, Director of Student Well-Being Jessie Martin and Hawthorne Elementary Principal Ernest Clinkscale.
“We are blessed to partner with Westerville City Schools, a district that is engaged, caring, and committed to improving the lives of students and families alongside so many others in our community,” WARM Executive Director Chad Maxeiner said during the event.
At the center of that partnership is WARM’s Share Bac A Pac program, which works with the district to help students who may not have reliable access to food during weekends and school breaks. Those are the times when free and reduced-price school meals are not available, and when food insecurity can become especially visible. School counselors play a key role, helping identify students who may need support and connecting them with the program in a way that respects both need and dignity.
A Growing Need
Each week, elementary schools receive meal kits containing two lunches, two breakfasts and snacks. At the middle and high school levels, WARM delivers food in bulk to stock school pantries, giving older students more autonomy to choose the items they need.
The scale of the need has grown quickly. At the start of the school year, WARM was providing 850 meal kits across the district. Within weeks, demand increased. Today, WARM is delivering more than 1,100 Share Bac A Pac bags.
“That means more than 1,100 children show up to school on Monday morning a little more ready, a little more secure, and a little more hopeful because someone made sure they did not go hungry over the weekend,” Maxeiner said.
Students Helping Students
Schools across the district regularly hold food drives to benefit WARM, turning the effort into something broader than a support program. It has become a community habit, with students, staff and families contributing to the same network of care.
This year, all three high schools collected nearly 7,900 food donations through their annual Food Fight Food Drive. The result is a partnership that reaches in two directions at once: helping students who need food, while giving other students a direct way to support neighbors and classmates.
For WARM, the Hand Up Award recognized a district that has become an active partner in meeting one of the community’s most basic needs. For Westerville City Schools, it underscored a simple reality: student well-being does not stop at the classroom door.
