A PIHS perk worth knowing
The Wildcat Cupboard has been around for over four years but with COVID it got put on the back burner for more pressing matters
These are some of the many necessities in the Wildcat Cupboard located in the health office. Along with food, hygiene products and clothes, students can access the supplies during the school day. Students haven’t known about all the supplies that are available to them. “There are students who come to school every day who are like ‘I forgot a pencil,’ but I have 15 million of them, so please come down and get one and tell your friends if they want one too,” said social worker Whitney Pinette.
February 17, 2022
It’s the end of the day. You’re sitting in class, and you’re so hungry you can’t focus. None of your friends have any food, you’ve already eaten all your lunch, you’ve got two hours of practice right after school to somehow have energy for, and at this point you’re about to gnaw the eraser off your pencil. But then you remember you can just go down to the health office and hit up the Wildcat Cupboard which has food that anyone can take, among many other school day necessities.
“It doesn’t matter who you are as a student,” said social worker Whitney Pinette. “Everybody has access to it.”
The Wildcat Cupboard is where you can go to get any basic necessities you may need throughout the day or you may need at home.
A brief list of some of the school supplies in the Wildcat Cupboard include:
- Pens
- Pencils
- Calculators
- Rulers
- Glue
- Crayons
- Notebooks
- Paper
- Binders
The Wildcat Cupboard also includes hygiene products:
- Toothbrushes
- Combs/brushes
- Hair ties
- Feminine Hygiene
- Shampoo/conditioner
- Deodorant
And food:
- Mac n cheese
- Soup
- Crackers
- Gummie fruit snacks
- Granola bars
Clothes including underwear, t-shirts, socks, pants, jackets and shoes. These are available for an emergency at school, or if you need any of these items at home.
If you want to donate anything, the Wildcat Cupboard is in need of new travel size personal hygiene products like soaps and deodorant. Another way to help out is by helping spread the word to other students about it. It is not only for students who can’t always provide things for themselves it is for EVERYONE.
Students can drop in on the health office to access the Wildcat Cupboard between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. on a school day. If you have any requests on what should be in the Wildcat Cupboard there will be a little bucket with notecards where you can put down anything that would be useful for you as a student.
I have enough supplies to give every student here two toothbrushes.
— Whitney Pinette
The goal for the Wildcat Cupboard is pretty fundamental: “To make sure that we provide as much for our students as we can,” Pinette said.
Not a lot of students know about the Wildcat Cupboard, but are pleased to learn it’s there.
“Now I kind of want to go down and see it,” said Liberty Herweh ‘25. “I feel like it might be more low key than going up to a teacher and saying, ‘Hey, I need this and this and this.’”
“I think it’s a good idea,” said Dylan Fuller ‘25. “Because you never know if somebody has a shortage of something or doesn’t have food at their house, and they can get it here.”
