By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Salthawk Community Support is looking for more help as students at Hutchinson High School and HMS-8 deal with the economic fallout from COVID-19.
"When the COVID hit our community, it hit our social service agencies in town, all of them," said Nikkee Byard with Salthawk Community Support. "Not only did it deplete resources, but it depleted funding. The funding basically went to nothing."
This has left Salthawk Community Support filling some of those gaps for students.
"We've helped with a lot of basic needs," Byard said. "A lot of simple clothing, backpacks, things like that that families just didn't have the resources to get to this year. Not only that, but just the social emotional piece, the stress level in homes."
There is additional stress in every home these days.
"We're coming back into a very stressful environment," Byard said. "It's been hard on the kids and it's been hard on teaching staff."
Part of what Salthawk Community Support hopes to do is pair students up with mentors who can help keep them accountable and direct them to resources if schools are forced to go away from in person learning later in the year due to COVID-19. If you'd like to help, contact SCS at (620) 615-4356.