Methodist Services’ childcare and educational after-school programs provide students and their families with daycare, hygiene services, school supplies, and tutoring. Nariah Anne Jewett Johnson worked for the Methodist Services after-school program at Paul L. Dunbar Elementary School last year. However, the program is unavailable at Dunbar Elementary School this year. This is likely a result of The United Methodist General Conference voting to decrease their spending budget on local churches and programs by 42% on April 29, 2024.
Johnson speaks on the importance of Methodist Services at Dunbar Elementary School, as it provided many low-income families and students with services they would not have access to without the program. Since the school offers minimal hygiene products and school supplies, students may struggle to find essential supplies without access to Methodist Services. Many students may also have to walk home without a parent or guardian because most families cannot afford childcare after school, and The Philadelphia School District does not have a school bus system.
Here’s what Johnson has to say about discontinuing Methodist Services at Paul L. Dunbar Elementary School.
You worked at Paul L Dunbar School for an entire year. How many of those students that you worked with were from low-income families?
All of them. Every single one. Not one of my kids was better off than the others. The kids that were, I guess you could say “better off” had two parents with jobs, but even then they were struggling financially. Overall, all of the students had trouble affording school supplies and hygiene products.
We had two twin boys who came from a large family who would try to steal things from the school to trade for money or items they needed. Their parents were largely absent, so they were raised by their 19-year-old sister. This is not uncommon at Dunbar Elementary and other elementary schools in North Philadelphia. However, it is not the child’s fault for being brought up in a low-income setting with absent parents, and Philadelphia needs to recognize that.
What kind of supplies and hygiene products did Methodist Services provide for these students from low-income families?
I am no longer with Methodist Services because they got defunded at Dunbar. Methodist Services still exists, just not at Dunbar.
While I was with them, Methodist Services was allowed to provide hygiene products and school supplies for students at the teacher’s request. I could also request that families receive packages from Methodist Services, and the family typically received those packages the same day. Those packages included things like soap, deodorant, and other hygiene products.
We would also help kids wash their hair because some students would get something stuck in their hair at school and it would stay there for days. Methodist services would also wash the kids’ uniforms and clothes at their site in West Philadelphia because kids would come in with the same dirt and paint stains on their shirts for a week.
Methodist also provided students with new backpacks because most kids could not afford to buy them, and we would give them new uniforms.
You talked about how Methodist Services provides supplies for students, but does the school itself provide any hygiene products or school supplies?
Dunbar does not provide many supplies or hygiene products for students because public schools in Philadelphia have minimal funding. For example, families had to buy navy blue shirts and khaki pants as uniforms because the school did not have enough money to provide them. Their policy is more flexible than that of Catholic schools, as they are understanding of people’s financial situations. They would prefer the Dunabr uniform, but if a student wore a navy blue graphic T-shirt, no one was gonna say anything.
The nurse has limited supplies to provide for students, but the nurse is only there two to three days a week, making hygiene resources even more scarce. Some teachers also try to provide hygiene products for their students, but they are so underpaid that they can barely afford to buy textbooks and other essential teaching materials. Therefore, hygiene products rarely make the budget cut.
The school would give out free lunches to students on Fridays, but I think it would be equally beneficial for them to provide students with hygiene products and teach students to keep their bodies clean.
Even though every student’s situation is different, does a lack of hygiene affect students’ learning and insecurities?
Some students were very self-sufficient in their hygiene and had no issues washing their hands and taking care of themselves, but others had no idea about how to properly brush their teeth, shower, or wash their hands. In the age group that I taught, students could tell the difference between those who knew how to take care of their hygiene and those who didn’t.
Before I could even gently approach students who needed hygiene help, other students would announce it to the class and yell things like “Who stinks?” This could be considered a form of bullying for students who were never taught how to properly clean themselves, and bullying leads to insecurity. If students feel insecure and unfit, they may focus more on their hygiene issues than on their schoolwork.
Providing hygiene products for students who need them could help level the playing field, and it is the first step to making all kids at Dunbar feel secure.
What difficulties might students at Dunbar face since Methodist Services has discontinued, and how could the school now support these students?
Many students have to walk home after school now instead of waiting for their parents to pick them up after school. Many likely don’t have access to the hygiene and school products they need to thrive in a school environment. It is not the student’s fault that they cannot afford to address their insecurities or have absent parents who never taught them how to take care of their bodies. The school district and the government need to recognize this issue and help students instead of relying on programs like Methodist Services that may not be around forever.
Now that Methodist Services is not at Dunbar Elementary, they should provide students with a full-time nurse who has access to hygiene products for students and families. I have thought for a while that the school district should allocate funds for student hygiene products in the same way it allocates money for food. If families are struggling to afford food, they are probably also struggling to buy toothpaste.
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