For our closing tribute for Women’s History Month, meet Sherita Cobb and Avis Barnes. These two remarkable women with Orange County Schools (OCS) lead a team of social workers and counselors who support students and advocate for their emotional, mental, and physical wellbeing. Sherita and Avis were instrumental in creating Weaver Street Market’s community food partnership with OCS and continue to spearhead the efforts to connect 588 students at eight schools with the food raised through the round up program at our Hillsborough store.
Sherita Cobb, Director Student Support Services
Sherita supervises the OCS social workers and counselors, and she manages OCS’s McKinney-Vento program, which supports homeless students. In recent years, there have been as many as 116 homeless students attending OCS. Sherita ensures the students’ educational needs are met and that they have other much needed resources, such as clothing, food, and bathing supplies.
Avis Barnes, Lead Social Worker
Avis provides school social work services at Cedar Ridge High School. Student support ranges from student attendance issues to students at risk for food insecurity to students facing homelessness. Avis also supports the other social workers—each OCS school has a social worker—and she mentors new social workers, facilitates monthly team meetings, and provides professional development for the Student Support Services Team.
Partnering with Weaver Street to Address Food Insecurity on School Breaks
Sherita and Avis agreed to meet with our Round Up Team earlier this year to share with us their efforts to support kids at risk for food insecurity and to discuss plans for the upcoming food distribution for spring break. Miss Barnes, as Avis is known in the schools, didn’t make the meeting—she was out grocery shopping for families who had been impacted by the recent storm that closed schools and left many homes without power. She was then delivering the much-needed groceries directly to the family homes. Sherita shared, “We really work hard to maintain a student’s self-confidence and integrity around food insecurity and homelessness.”
Students at risk for food insecurity are most vulnerable when the schools are closed for breaks, and the students don’t have access to free school breakfasts and lunches. Winter and spring breaks are planned; others are not, like days (or weeks). Weaver Street’s round up for Orange County Schools provides sacks of healthy groceries for the kids and their families for winter and spring break.
Avis and Sherita coordinate with staff at eight schools to receive from Weaver Street Market 21 pallets of fresh produce and non-perishables. To protect the dignity of the families, the food is sorted at the schools by teachers, principals, social workers, support staff, and volunteers who work with the students rather than community volunteers who the families may meet in public.
Sherita shared that the families receiving the food from Weaver Street were unfamiliar with brands like Annie’s and Field Day and that they had to encourage the parents to try the different brands. The kids immediately loved the Field Day Organic O’s and Organic Instant Oatmeal packets.
Avis requested early in our partnership to include bulk items as an economical option rather than packaged food. Bulk items that are now included are rice, beans, and fresh green beans. x
According to Sherita, one of the biggest obstacles that they face in supporting students is preparing them for the future:
We want them to become self-sufficient [adults], so what other things can we put in place to help them? And so for me, a big obstacle is looking at what kind of training do they need? What kind of jobs can we start preparing them for if college is not in their realm? Some of the kids we do push to go to community college, there are grants and programs out there to help with that.
When asked to share any advice she had for young girls (or grown women) wanting to become social workers, Avis told us:
My advice would be girls, women…we can be and do anything! I am a proud School Social Worker, which happens to be my Superhero symbol that I wear on my chest! I am very passionate about social work. I love this profession. It has been very rewarding to see my students and families progress to better situations than when they first came to need my assistance. This is “heart work.”