Giving students in Baltimore County more support to lift our community

Always seeking more help with the needs of local kids in Baltimore County Public Schools whose families are having a hard time getting by in modern America, Pete Dimitriades of Student Support Network updates Nestor on helping children right here in your neighborhood with food and basic necessities in dignified and kind ways. “A Cup Of Soup Or Bowl” week seeks to bring issues close to home and this is right around the corner from all of us.

Pete Dimitriades from the Student Support Network (SSN) discussed the organization’s efforts to help children in Baltimore County schools with food and necessities. The SSN, which started in 2015, now supports 21 schools and has a waiting list of 33 schools. The network has raised $11 million since its inception but faces funding challenges. The pandemic exacerbated food insecurity, with lines of 100-200 cars weekly at distribution sites. The SSN provides basic necessities discreetly to avoid shame. They seek donations of new, unused items and volunteers. The organization aims to secure a portion of the $10 million annually generated from Baltimore’s marijuana trade for their cause.

• [ ] Pick up donation items from donors’ homes when requested and deliver them to the Student Support Network hub (arrange pickups via provided phone number)
• [ ] Advocate to county legislators to allocate at least 5% of the county CRRF/marijuana revenue fund to Student Support Network (ongoing legislative outreach)

Student Support Network Overview and Challenges

• Nestor Aparicio introduces the Student Support Network and its mission to help kids in Baltimore County schools with food and necessities.
• Pete Dimitriades discusses the worsening environment for children in need, citing budget issues at the state level and funding cuts from the federal government.
• Pete highlights the high poverty rate in Baltimore County, which is 74%, and his role as both a board member and president of advocacy for the Student Support Network.
• The conversation touches on the growing food insecurity and poverty in Baltimore County, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and fear of ICE raids.

Impact of COVID-19 and Community Support

• Pete shares his personal experience of seeing the impact of COVID-19 on the community, including job losses and increased poverty.
• The discussion includes the reluctance of corporations, governments, and private individuals to donate due to economic and political uncertainties.
• Nestor criticizes the government for funding ICE instead of supporting organizations like the Student Support Network.
• Pete explains the origins of the Student Support Network, which started in 2015 by Lori Taylor, a high school teacher, to help five struggling families.

Expansion and Challenges of the Student Support Network

• The Student Support Network has expanded to help 21 schools in Baltimore County, with 33 more on the waiting list.
• Pete describes the discreet distribution of basic necessities to avoid shaming students, including food, hygiene products, and school supplies.
• The network relies on donations and the efforts of teachers and administrators who often buy supplies for their classrooms.
• The conversation highlights the ongoing struggle to meet the growing needs of students, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Community Involvement and Funding Needs

• Pete emphasizes the importance of community involvement and the need for more funding to support the growing number of schools.
• The Student Support Network has raised $11 million since its inception but faces challenges in securing additional funding.
• The discussion includes the impact of the pandemic on the community, with increased fear and hesitation among families seeking help.
• Pete mentions the potential for funding from the marijuana trade in Baltimore County, which could help support the network’s efforts.

How to Support the Student Support Network

• Nestor asks how the community can support the Student Support Network, and Pete provides information on donating food, money, and time.
• The network’s address is 1954 Green Spring Drive, Timonium, MD 21093, and Pete’s contact number is 443-226-0651.
• The Student Support Network website is ssn.org, where donations can be made and information on needed items is available.
• Pete encourages the community to volunteer their time and support the network’s efforts to help children in need.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Student Support Network, Baltimore County, food insecurity, poverty, COVID-19 impact, federal funding cuts, community support, basic necessities, teacher involvement, advocacy committee, donations, volunteer opportunities, school distribution, mental health, economic challenges.

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SPEAKERS

Nestor Aparicio, Pete Dimitriades

Nestor Aparicio  00:00

Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, am 1570 task Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. We are positively at Costas inronium, no longer in Dundalk. We’re here giving away the candy cane, cash, Maryland lottery tickets. We’re doing a cup of soup or bold as our community initiative, initiative to shed a light on some good causes, good people doing good stuff. It’s all brought to you by our friends at GBMC. Began on Monday at faidley’s. Went to the west side in El Guapo. On Tuesday, Wednesday, we wound up at Koco’s Pub in Laravel. Thursday, we were at Pizza John’s in Essex. Today, we’re cost this in and Timonium ending things. And you know, I’m doing walk ons here. I got the student support network. So part of the problem Pete is I sent out a bunch of emails last week, invited people. Some people got back. I got spam trapped. I got I am IG, Facebook, LinkedIn, email, text, carrier pigeon, facts, I mean, all sorts of ways. So Pete Demetri itis is here he is with the student support network. We have featured your organization before. Absolutely. My dude, Bill Cole and Todd Schuler knew a lot about it. I think if I had to do the segment without you, I’d say student pantry, kids in need, kids that need to eat. There’s shame involved. There’s all this stuff involved in all of that, for kids who are less fortunate

Pete Dimitriades  01:21

and and the environment has really worsened this past year, in what way them. You know, we have always had support on a state level and a federal level, but that seems to have, you know, we have budget issues on a state level. And, of course, the current federal government sees us as a dei organization, so they are quickly cutting funding from not just us, but people, same people that do exactly the same thing we do, taking care of kids in need, the most fortunate people, most unfortunate unfortunate we have, you know, our poverty rate in Baltimore County, 74% what Absolutely, and that is, you know, I’m on the board for for the student support network, but I’m also the president of advocacy. And one of the thing that I have been around maybe doing this for a year. I started with the organization as a foot soldier many years ago. But I’m just blown away. How many people don’t understand. How many people in our community are behind the eight ball, you know, and we

Nestor Aparicio  02:35

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see them walking the earth in it, out of New York Road, in a grocery store here, wherever we waiting on a bus wherever it is. You know, we don’t

Pete Dimitriades  02:43

recognize don’t I live in Towson. I grew up in Towson. I have well meaning friends and people in my community that are willing and would be willing to help, but they don’t understand the level of food insecurity and poverty in Baltimore County, and it’s growing. And now it’s growing exponentially, because people are losing their jobs. It’s just people are afraid to leave their houses to go work and bring money and food to support their kids. Kids are being are afraid to go to school, thinking that ice is going to pick them up. And this is, this is an added layer that is really spinning out of control and is creating poverty exponentially in Baltimore County. What can we do

Nestor Aparicio  03:30

about it? How can we help student support network? Pete, you know, we’ve,

Pete Dimitriades  03:35

it’s been very difficult to including, you know, in my own personal industry, I’ve seen it a lot of corporations. I’m in real estate, Okay, fair enough. I see a lot of people that, even my clients who are cash heavy, they say to me, you know that our interest? They want to buy a house, they want to buy investment properties, but they’re like Pete, they’re cash heavy, but they say, listen, we’re going to take a step back and see where this craziness takes us as a country. They are very insecure about where we’re going, economically and politically, and people are putting on the brakes. And so traditionally, these corporations, these governments and nonprofit profits and foundations and even private individuals are taking a step back, and they say we want to help, but we just don’t know where we’re going. You know, I have had clients that that are researchers in in Johns Hopkins and other places that they are losing their funding, they are losing their jobs, and it’s just it’s like this across the board,

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Nestor Aparicio  04:48

the government funding these thugs from ice to come and hurt people, instead of funding the student support network or funding correct funding education or funding important things and housing and all sorts of issues.

Pete Dimitriades  05:00

Anyone with a commitment to help people disadvantaged in our community and communities around the country are just getting knocked back.

Nestor Aparicio  05:10

Let’s get to student support and talk about that absolutely. How long has it been going on? And I’ve known about it for maybe a decade here.

Pete Dimitriades  05:17

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So it started in 2015 Okay? By Lori Taylor, Mitchell, Loch Raven, high school teachers and administrators approached her, and it was around the holidays, and there were five families that were really struggling at Loch Raven. They had nothing, absolutely nothing, nor, you know, even gifts to have or to take to, you know, people in their families. Lori stepped up, galvanized her community and helped these five families, and then it just started building. These are teachers. Two more. These were teachers that reached out to her. And I always say, teachers and nurses make the world go round. They touch people. Absolutely. My wife’s a teacher, and you know, she tells me, when she first started teaching, you know, there were kids so impoverished, so food deficient, that you couldn’t teach them. They would come to school, and this is elementary school level, you know, without food in their bellies, without sleep, without proper hygiene, the last thing they wanted to do is to learn and to feel part, to feel part of that classroom, you know, and it’s difficult, and we see it today. And so Lori started this in 2015 and it just expanded. Other administrators and teachers around the county heard what she was doing, and so they said, please help us as well. So throughout the years,

Nestor Aparicio  06:45

and these are the same teachers that are buying Kleenex, buying supplies, buying man, everything in their classroom. We know, I know. Wait, I’m standing next to a teacher. Teachers, teachers

Pete Dimitriades  06:55

obligate themselves. 24/7, throughout the year, there are no breaks for teachers. People have this misimpression that, you know, may comes, they’re gone, they’re out the door, they’re going to relax on a beach. It doesn’t happen for teachers. They are fully committed, invested to their students in the classroom. I ever had was in the classroom and outside their classroom, and so, you know, we have built this network of 21 schools that we are helping now, county Okay, and the county in Baltimore and Baltimore County, and 33 on the waiting list. And so we have these hubs within rooms of support, as we call them, within each

Nestor Aparicio  07:41

school, and they’re little like grocery stores, right? These aren’t they’re not getting handed around

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Pete Dimitriades  07:47

separated apps Luke from and you know you have to be careful. You don’t want to. You know these kids, especially in high school and middle school, where, you know they’re starting to try to find themselves and everyone around them, you know. And you don’t want to shame them that these people are really in need, you know. So we try to do it as discreetly as possible. Screams on poor when they’re four. No, no, but you know that? Mean, there’s some there’s some very tough kids around that just don’t get it, you know. And you know. So we don’t want to signal people out, but we have these hubs within that we bring them everything, you know, it’s just, it’s basic necessities, food, proper, hygiene products, for for the ladies, shampoo, deodorants, you

Nestor Aparicio  08:36

know, toothpaste is what I see, yeah, and toothpaste, You

Pete Dimitriades  08:39

know, people are stuff. Kids are embarrassed and ashamed to go to school because they don’t have deodorant to put on before they go to school. They go there, you know, and they smell, and they can’t help it, but they have to go to the cost six bucks, absolutely, you know. So we do everything, new coats, food, school supplies, backpacks, new new shoes, new sneakers, everything, not just food. We have a our own hub on green Spring Drive in Lutherville, and all these Designated teachers and administrators from our network, schools will come, will come in droves, or a big truck, and they take it back, and they take it back to the distribution part, absolutely. And we just keep it going, whatever they need. And you know, it’s starting to become a little bit of a struggle. And you know, I started when covid hit, and we went complete shutdown. So the network, and under Lori Taylor Mitchell, we all galvanized these incredible companies, food distributors, farms around the county, everyone stepped up and contributed food for these. Always in need. You know, they couldn’t go to work, they couldn’t provide themselves. So we all pitched in. And so many people in our community pitched in, pitched in. And every Friday during lockdown, we would either be at we were at lock Raven, at Parkville High School, and at omings Mills High School on Fridays. And literally on each site, we had 100 to 200 cars line up every Friday, and it was just an incredible thing. And for me, I helped manage the Parkville site, and everyone would line up, and I would try to just help the queue come around and, you know, the traffic about it, and everyone

Nestor Aparicio  10:44

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was some humanities watching people go absolutely and people,

Pete Dimitriades  10:48

would I remember one thing that just really impressed me, and I’ll, I’ll never forget people would roll down their windows and just be so grateful and thankful for what we were doing in A very difficult and critical time in our country. And, you know, it’s just, it really, it caught me. It brought me in. I never left the organization, and I and I’m determined to board member. I want to get I am a board member and president of our advocacy committee.

Nestor Aparicio  11:16

How many of you are, well as on the committees and all that, how many grown ups are trying to make this happen, above and beyond the teachers?

Pete Dimitriades  11:22

You teachers. So on our board, there are eight of us. On our advocacy committee, there are three of us and still making it grow. And then there is a complete network, 21 schools, right? Yes, yes, and 33 on the waiting list. It’s just extraordinary. I met the principal of overly high school a while ago, and she was desperate and begging me to to add the school to the list. We just, we just don’t have the funding. You know, we need to make sure that the network schools we do have, we can still keep providing, but, you know, we need to start bringing in money. Since 2015 Lori has brought in, I think, $11 million you know. But it sounds like a big number, it sounds but it’s a it’s a lot of schools. We have a huge population in Baltimore County, and it’s still growing, you know. But we it started the pandemic, and I was telling you, and then my experience two months ago, we did the same thing in some selective schools. I helped again at Parkville High School, all of a sudden we had a line of cars coming up and those happy faces rolling down the window that I remembered when we first started in the pandemic closed lockdown, it changed because of the situation with ice and everything. People would pull up because they needed our help. No matter what. They were really desperate, they would pull down their windows. And instead of the smile and the thankfulness and you know, that that I saw during the I saw fear in every single one pulling up, you know, in line now very hesitant to roll down their windows. Some would roll down their windows, everyone in their families, in their car, because they were afraid to leave, people in their house or in a separate area go together. They would all come in together if one was going to go down logical it is, it’s a bit of warfare. And so they were not well, they would roll down their window. And this fear in their in their eyes, asking me, do we need to show ID? Do we need to show proof of anything? And I would just really realize we’re here to feed reiterate, we are your friends. We are here for you, you know, and it’s just your IDs, your breathing, it’s it’s been, it’s been really, really, incredibly difficult, but we are committed Keep up the great work. We are looking for funding. You know, there is the credit repair and the CRRF credit repair and reinstitution fund that it’s money that comes from the marijuana trade in our city, they are bringing in quite a bit of money. In the county, they’re bringing in 10 million annually. You know, we’re trying to help. We’re trying to get our legislators to at least allow us 5% of what’s coming in to keep us moving, you know? And it’s just, it’s a battle, but it’s a it’s a battle we’re determined to win.

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Nestor Aparicio  14:43

Well, I hope you guys continue to fund if you want to help student support network, tell everybody how to find you and help if they want to write a check, can they bring food? What do they need to do?

Pete Dimitriades  14:51

Yes, absolutely. We are at 1954 green Spring Drive. It’s right around the corner exactly in Timonium, Maryland, two, one. 093, you could always come there. I’m happy you can reach out to me. 443-226-0651, and I’m happy to come and pick up from your homes. If you can’t do that. We also have the Student Support Network website. Please go on there and anything you can guess it

Nestor Aparicio  15:20

can be canned goods that go home to their family that’s absolutely sport like, it’s like, Lunchable things, things to snack on. It that at school, we moved beyond.

Pete Dimitriades  15:31

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We’re the only organization that goes beyond that. You know, just again, I’m

Nestor Aparicio  15:37

gonna give you my donation today, I have a donation for you today.

Pete Dimitriades  15:39

We’re so appreciative, so appreciative. You know, we just need shampoo, you know, women’s products, everything and anything, you know, got it. It all has to be new and unused, of course, and non

Nestor Aparicio  15:52

expired foods. So it’s a website, the address,

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Pete Dimitriades  15:55

it’s it’s ssn.org,

Nestor Aparicio  15:59

Student Support Network. Ssn.org,

Pete Dimitriades  16:03

Yep, absolutely, so anything you could do. I know these are difficult times economically for everyone, absolutely. You know, it’s neighbors helping neighbors get any more local day. And you know, really the leading cause of death in this country, and I was blown away from this is food and nutrition. It creates illness. People die from that. It creates mental health issues. There’s so much that goes back to what we you know, and it’s just, it’s extraordinary. We are an extraordinary time. So we all, we all need to step up and help our brothers and sisters in our community. And nothing is too little, anything you could do and give even your time, even set Come, come and just volunteer your time in our hub to help, we would be so grateful and appreciative

Nestor Aparicio  16:58

well, and you’ll see the results right away, because it’s right here in the community. Absolutely mailing and they go. Pete Dimitri Edison is here with the Student Support Network. We’ve had them on before. I’m glad we had them on now. Glad I could fit you in so great. Came up here from Towson to Timonium. No problem at all. We’re cost us in. It’s all brought to you by the Maryland here. Candy Cane, cash number 58 Peter Boulware, good luck for you. We’re gonna what we’re gonna be here a little while longer. It cost us. We’re going to be running all this all week long, at AM 1570 if you’re out there, you can find it all on our podcast audio vault, as well as on our YouTube channel and at Baltimore positive. I’m back for more from Costas, more good stories ahead, more great groups here. Stay with us. We’re Baltimore positive.