Arlington educators Earlene Pike and her daughter Nikki Thompson have mastered their method of packing food bags.
Chef Boyardee canned ravioli, bag. Vienna sausages, bag. Ramen noodles, bag.
Both drag Kroger bags across a table in the back of Westminster Presbyterian Church, filling them with shelf-stable food until they reach the end where they tie them up and place the pack into a plastic bin with an Arlington ISD school name labeled on the front.
The two are part of a nonprofit called New Day Arlington, a collection of churches and about 150 volunteers across the city working to feed Arlington ISD students who face food insecurity on the weekends when they cannot access reduced or free meals.
Volunteers like Pike and Thompson spend at least an hour packing bags on Saturdays. Every Thursday, they deliver the bins to schools.
Bins labeled with school names sit on a shelf Dec. 13 in the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Arlington. Volunteers fill the bins with food bags to deliver to Arlington ISD schools for New Day Arlington. (Chris Moss | Arlington Report)
As former educators, the hours are more than worth it.
“Just knowing that kids are going to get the food motivates me,” Thompson said while placing a Nutri-Grain bar into a bag.
Which Arlington churches are involved?
While many churches help pitch in, five serve as packing centers for the organization
- Grace Presbyterian Church
- St. John the Apostle United Methodist Church
- Westminster Presbyterian Church
- Trinity United Methodist Church
- Church of the Good Shepherd United Methodist
Pike’s journey with the organization began about nine years ago, when she was invited to help pack bags by a member of the board.
Earlene Pike fills a plastic Kroger bag with food to deliver to Arlington ISD schools at Westminster Presbyterian Church on Dec. 13. She volunteers with and serves on the board of New Day Arlington. (Chris Moss | Arlington Report)
Pike said the member asked her if she wanted to help pack bags, which quickly became taking those bags to schools.
“I just hate thinking about people going hungry, especially kids,” Pike said.
Her daughter began helping out a couple years later.
Thompson is a professional learning specialist with Arlington ISD. Before that, she taught at multiple Arlington schools, including Bryant Elementary.
One of the most impactful moments of Thompson’s time with New Day came during the COVID-19 pandemic, she said.
Nikki Thompson opens a case of Chef Boyardee canned ravioli to pack into food bags in the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Arlington Dec. 13. (Chris Moss | Arlington Report)
Volunteers drop the food packs off with counselors, who then give them to students ahead of the weekend.
During the pandemic, she was a substitute teacher at a school for which she packed food bags.
The handoff process between the volunteers and counselors is meant to keep students’ identities hidden from New Day. During that Friday class, Thompson got to see the fruits of her labor.
“The kids were like, ‘Oh my gosh, my food is here,’ they were so excited,” Thompson said. “Getting to actually see that was huge to me. I won’t forget that.”
During the last school year, New Day delivered over 28,000 bags, according to the organization.
In 2023, around 18% of American households with children under the age of 18 faced food insecurity, according to the U. S. Department of Agriculture. Around 9% of households saw children themselves faced with low food security.
In Tarrant County, the food insecurity rate sat at 15.6% in 2023, according to Feeding America’s Map the Meal study.
Cynthia Ward, a social worker at Lamar High School, said hunger uniquely affects students.
“It definitely affects their ability to concentrate in school, sometimes with anxiety or with that feeling of frustration of not being able to know where their next meal is coming from,” Ward said. “That may come out in behavioral issues as well.”
Ward said that organizations such as New Day Arlington that look to fill gaps in resources that food banks and the education system do not cover have a huge impact.
She said she recently saw that impact in action when three siblings entered her office, saying they were in need after their mother was deported.
“So they loaded up on some of those bags, because there were a lot of kids there, and all of a sudden, you know, with the mom being gone, they’re working on half the income now,” Ward said. “Just those sorts of things are examples of where the food bags are very, very helpful.”
Ahead of the holiday break, Pike and Thompson brought their usual loads of food to schools. In the future, they hope to bring more for long breaks.
“If I could, I’d send two or three bags with each kid,” Pike said.
Special treat bags with notes and sweets sit in a bin Dec. 13 in the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Arlington. Volunteers packed the treats into food bags given to food-insecure students ahead of the holiday break. (Chris Moss | Arlington Report)
The organization is entirely funded by donations and grants.
How you can help
If you would like to donate food, money or volunteer your time, click here to find more information.
Thompson said that giving back through the organization isn’t just something she feels obliged to do — it’s something she truly believes in.
“This is what I know to be something that is important and helping out where it’s needed, right?” Thompson said as she turned off the lights in the food storage room of the church. “I could be doing lots of other things, but that might not be where it really is needed, whereas this, I know there’s a purpose, there’s a need. It’s consistent in that need, and each little bag makes a difference.”
Chris Moss is a reporting fellow for the Arlington Report. Contact him at chris.moss@fortworthreport.org.
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