Principal opens food pantry inside Polk County school located in food desert

POINCIANA, Fla. — Come this new school year, students and parents of Lake Marion Creek Middle School will have access to free food. What was once a teacher’s lounge has been transformed into a food pantry. Feeding Tampa Bay packing the pantry ahead of the first day of school.’Our Feeding Minds program started with five school pantries throughout the Tampa Bay area five years ago. Last year we served over 1.1 million meals in 42 pantries,’ said Shannon Oliviero with Feeding Tampa Bay.With more than 90 percent of students at Lake Marion Creek Middle participating in free or reduced lunch, the school’s new principal, Wanda Aponte, realized there was a great need to provide students with access to nutritious food.