Opinion: Now is the time to support D.C.’s community schools

By Eboni-Rose Thompson

We’re in a pickle, D.C.

This fall, the federal government shutdown delayed benefits for millions of Americans that receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance, or SNAP. This essential safety net helps provide groceries for people who might otherwise struggle to feed themselves and their children. States and advocates rushed to court to force a remedy.

Here in D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser’s decision to use local funding to continue SNAP through the end of November was absolutely the right thing to do. For families who budgeted tightly around that monthly allotment, a skipped payment is not an abstraction. It is an empty refrigerator and a parent choosing between transit and groceries. Even with that local relief and a possible federal deal on the table, the harm has already rippled through families’ lives.

Many local households are still reeling from the devastation caused by DOGE cuts, furloughs, and the toll of working without pay during the shutdown. Add to that the reality that D.C. is among the slowest in the nation at processing new SNAP applications, and families’ misfortunes are compounding by the week. In our communities, Black women, who are more often the heads of household, bear the brunt of this economic instability, heavily employed in federal roles and targeted by anti-DEI policies across the workforce. Our families and communities need solutions that are accessible, trusted, and close to home.

That is why community schools — which DCPS defines as schools that act as “resource hubs” and work to meet student needs inside and outside the classroom — are so essential. 

Here in Washington, D.C., and especially in my home community, Ward 7, the economic impact is amplified by geography and history. East of the river continues to be a food desert with far fewer full-service grocery stores than other parts of the city. That structural gap is why local food banks, school-based markets, and mutual-aid networks are already stretched to meet the surge in need. Roughly one in four Ward 7 households rely on SNAP benefits, which means thousands of families were one policy decision away from losing their grocery lifeline overnight.

Additionally, truancy and chronic absenteeism have been persistent problems in the District. At a recent D.C. Council roundtable on attendance, councilmembers asked why students skip school. The answers were not only about transportation, safety, illness, or discipline. Children miss school when their homes are chaotic with food insecurity, when parents are anxious about immigration enforcement or sudden police actions, or when preschool programs close because federal funds stop. A child who goes to bed hungry or worries about a parent’s safety is not ready to learn, and absenteeism follows. Food security, family stability, and school attendance are the same problem seen from different doors.

Community schools are the obvious key to opening those doors. I have seen firsthand at funded community schools — like Kimball Elementary, which has a food pantry and washing machines — investments that get our students in the schoolhouse door and learning. They are not band-aids; they are hubs. A community school coordinates on-site health and mental-health supports, breakfast and after-school meals, family resource centers, and partnerships with local food banks and mutual-aid groups. When SNAP is paused, a school market run in partnership with programs like Communities in Schools or the Latin American Youth Center, a mobile distribution organized with Capital Area Food Bank, or a neighborhood mutual-aid delivery arranged through DC Food Project can mean the difference between a child showing up ready to learn or staying home hungry.

We should also be clear about funding. While federal policy matters, and Congress’s choices right now are hurting millions, most day-to-day education dollars for our schools are raised and spent locally. That means D.C.’s choices matter enormously. If the federal department is weakened, the local investments we make in community schools, in family supports, and in public-sector partnerships are the buffer that keeps neighborhoods from unraveling.

So yes, we are in a pickle. Pickles are preserved by quick, wise action. Expand community-school supports. Stand up emergency school-linked food distributions. Fund community schools. When you do, you fund caseworkers who can connect families to the Capital Area Food Bank, Martha’s Table, DC Food Project, and local pantries, or better yet, bring the pantries to families at school. When the federal safety net falters, locally rooted community schools are the resilience strategy that keeps children fed, families calm, and students in school where they belong.