In a story that both warms your heart and breaks it, Christmas might come twice for nearly 300 students at Fort Worth’s Western Hills High School.
When those students begin their Winter Break on Thursday they will not leave class empty-handed. They will carry out 280+ care packages loaded down with non-perishable food items that are meant to sustain them while they are away from school.
“We are concerned that they may not have enough to eat over the holidays,” said Karen Landon, a 1982 alum of Western Hills High, who has helped to establish a nonprofit that is dedicated to helping WHHS students who need it the most.
Something like 7 in 10 students at Western Hills are on a free or reduced lunch program, which provides them with two free meals, five days a week.
“During the Holidays they don’t have that opportunity,” said Landon, a retired school librarian.
Patty Pressley, a former classmate of Landon’s, is the co-executor of the WHHS Cougar Pride Foundation, a 501(c)(3) corporation, which was formed almost overnight.
“We had heard about what was happening at Western Hills by a post I had read in the app Nextdoor,” Pressley noted. “I couldn’t believe it, this was my school!”
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In just seven weeks’ time, Pressley and several other alumni and staffers at the school have created the Cougar Corner - a fully-stocked food and clothing pantry that operates out of a portable building on the WHHS campus. Cougar Corner allows students to come in and select from a wide array of snacks, easy meals, winter coats, shoes and clothing.
“This is a labor of love for these kids. And they’re good kids,” Pressley said.
