RICHMOND HEIGHTS, Ohio — Times may be tough but a high school in Northeast Ohio is trying to bridge the gap: helping not only students and families succeed, but the community, too.
Flex High School in Richmond Heights is a public charter school. Principal Kimberly Sterlekar said it provides unique opportunities for students that don’t thrive in a traditional school setting.
“For students that are kind of marginalized throughout the system to come and recoup credits, or just attend high school with a flexible schedule. To work in what they’re interested in and create their own stories,” she said.
160 students are enrolled and their ages range from 14 to 22-years-old.
“Some students don’t find success with traditional brick and mortar schools but we provide this opportunity for them to feel like a family and feel wanted and needed. We provide wrap-around services,” Sterlekar said.
Rachel Woodward, the school’s operations manager, said they realized that wrap-around services meant food, too, beyond snacks and lunch.
“We had a lot of kids who were struggling. They were coming in saying ‘hey, I need some food. I need help with rent,’” she said. “Because we have some students who are 18 and older, they’re living on their own.”
Last year, the school partnered with Cleveland Food Bank to do more. They began hosting a drive-thru food bank in front of the school every last Thursday of every month.
“It’s four to 5,000 pounds [of food] every time we get food here, so it’s a lot of food that we are able to give away to our students and our community,” she said.
It's an assist for students like 18-year-old William Thornton.
“A lot of people can’t afford to get food from the store but you come up here, they give you anything, they feed you. It’s a good thing,” he said.
And benefits community members like Yvonne Coman.
“I’m here because I’m a senior and I have cancer, so this food is just hard for me to obtain and I’m very thankful for this organization that is offering this to us,” said Coman. “I have to decide if I’m going to buy my medicine or I’m going to buy some food.”
Mike Busch, a Flex High School employee, packs the boxes and the cars every last Thursday of the month.
“As the cars pull up, everybody gets one box and everybody gets a little bit of everything. We have fruit, we have vegetables, we have produce. All different types of things every month,” said Busch. “People are really grateful. They appreciate it because everybody could use a little help.”
Flex High School’s next food bank will be on April 27 in front of the school at 5222 Wilson Mills Rd. in Richmond Heights.
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