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Students at Southwest Middle School can now receive assistance with either their laundry, school supplies, food, clothes or hygiene products thanks to Tiger Den, an umbrella program incorporating different services and items the school provides for students in need.

Tiger Den officially began roughly one month ago.

“It’s been a need that I think we’ve all kind of seen over the years, especially with our demographics changing and things like that,” said Tyler Johnson, principal at Southwest Middle School.

According to Stephanie Engebretson, school social worker, Southwest has done something somewhat similar — a hodgepodge of stuff in the back of her office.

“We decided just to put it under one umbrella, all the programs we had,” said Jill Luoma, secretary to the principal.

Johnson noted the need, especially among students whose bodies are changing. Staff also saw students wearing the same clothes consecutively for multiple days, something he said “didn’t fly” like it might have at an elementary school.

“We did do some washing of the students’ clothes during the day this year, and then they gave them a pair of clothes to wear during the day while we washed the clothes,” he said. “That’s kind of where the idea of that came from as well.”

The idea, however, is not new. It actually started with a cart last spring.

“Just to get rid of stuff and get everything out, help students finish out the school year,” Engebretson said. “This year it just kind of has grown.”

“We’ve done the food-for-backpacks for a couple years now,” Luoma added. “The things that we’ve added are the Loads of Success, the clothing closet and the book fair.”

Previously, Luoma had operated the book fair for three years before deciding to put everything together.

“If they needed supplies before, it was a classroom teacher saying, “Hey, student one really could probably use some deodorant,” Johnson said.

Engebretson also liked the idea of students advocating for themselves more, and Johnson noted the new program was more “streamlined.”

Luoma said the new program allowed them to help more students with more needs, and said previously there was a more limited supply of items on hand.

“Stephanie and I just thought if we threw it out there for the public to know, we could get more,” she said.

Johnson said while doing research on the idea, she found other schools across the country were doing something similar. He also noted other schools saw these programs help with student attendance.

“If you think about it, it makes sense where if a student feels clean and they have those hygiene products ready, it’s one less barrier or another reason not to go to school,” he said. “We want to eliminate all those barriers that we can to help increase that as well.”

No questions are asked, and no contact is made with students requesting things. Instead, students fill out a Google form, which is send to Luoma and Engerbretson. They then package up items where either they or hall monitors will put a brown or white paper sack in the student’s locker.

So far, response to the program has been positive with people donating money and items for Tiger Den.

“Parents are very grateful when I’ve offered it to them,” Engebretson said. “The students are really excited. They’re like, ‘I haven’t gotten my stuff yet.’”

Johnson said previously there wasn’t a Google form

“Students can, if they make a request, they can always make another request,” Engebretson “Say, for example, in the fall you really needed school supplies like pencils or highlighters. But now you’ve run out of toothpaste. You can put in another request to get additional supplies for your needs.”

Luoma estimated the school has had roughly 250 requests since all the services were merged together. And she said the school has had some students who made multiple requests. By comparison, there are 500 total students in the building.

Students interested in requesting a product or service can find the form on one of the tabs on their school-issued ChromeBook.

For parents interested in donating items, Johnson said they’re welcome to stop off at the main office doors. They can also mail either checks or supplies, and Luoma has an Amazon Wish List link on Southwest Scuttle, which is also on their website.

“It’s just good to know that we’re always there to help if they need these things,” Luoma said.

In total, Tiger Den incorporates the book club, Food-for-Backpacks, Loads of Success, a clothing closet, school supplies and hygiene products. Loads of Success and the clothing closet are new.

She also hoped to keep the program going on a year-round basis, and Engebretson said there was a higher need for school supplies at the beginning of the year.

“It’s just a good reminder that we always need to put students first in this position, in this career as well,” Johnson said. “By doing this we are putting the students first by some of their most basic needs as well just so that way they can feel safe and welcome at school. If they don’t feel safe and welcome it’s hard for them to learn.”

“It does take a village to raise the kids, and that’s kind of how Steph and I think about it,” Luoma said. “We’re not just here as school workers, we’re also parents and friends and community families that want to be engaged and support these students so that they can grow up to be and have good lives and successful lives.”

“It makes me continue to think about not judging a book by its cover because some of the students, you might not know what they need,” Engebretson said. “Now we can feel more comfortable advocating for it in a more anonymous way.”