What started as a small bowl of chocolate on a desk has grown into a community-wide effort to support students at Battle Ground and Prairie high schools.
The inaugural Cram the Cruiser event, set for Saturday, March 28, invites community members to donate non-perishable snacks to help stock student food pantries run by school resource officers.
The drive will take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Fred Meyer, 401 NW 12th Ave. in Battle Ground, where donations will be placed directly into police and sheriff’s patrol vehicles.
The event builds on a program that began at Battle Ground High School last year, where School Resource Officer Phil Anderson started offering snacks to students out of his own pocket. What began as a simple habit quickly turned into a program that created a steady stream of students stopping by to connect with their local officer.
“Probably the favorite part (is) the opportunity to be present when someone's having a not very good day, and with the hope of ending the conversation where they're in a better place,” Anderson said. “So someone comes in, they're scared, they're angry, they're frustrated, and at the end of that conversation, they feel better. To me, that's the best part. To protect and serve and keep them safe, those are all overriding principles. But consistently through the days, weeks, months and years, to be able to have conversations with kids and positively impact their day … To me, that's the most rewarding thing.”
The pantry, named by students and staff “The Tiger’s Table,” expanded with support from the Battle Ground Education Foundation, which provides funding to help keep it stocked. A similar pantry has since been established at Prairie High School through a partnership with the Clark County Sheriff’s Office. Battle Ground Police Chief Dennis Flynn, who spearheaded the Cram the Cruiser event, said the Tiger’s Table grew from a simple idea focused on connection, not programming.
“(Anderson) simply wanted students to feel comfortable walking up and starting a conversation with a police officer,” Flynn said. “And it worked.”
Each day, students visit the pantries for quick snacks such as granola bars, instant noodles and crackers. While some come for nutritional benefits, others come for a reason that is less visible. Establishing the pantry as a safe space for students has helped many feel comfortable when looking for guidance or help with an issue.
“There have been a number of times where I'll see two students come into the office, usually gals, and I know one. ‘Hey, how are you doing?’ ‘Good to see you, Officer Anderson,’ and they turn to their friend and say, ‘You know, the thing that you just shared with me, the thing you just told me, you need to tell that to Officer Anderson. You can trust him,’” Anderson said. “And then we have a sometimes powerful discussion about things that are not necessarily easily shared, but there has been an opportunity to establish some relationship with the one. And based on that, they've talked their friend into coming forward.”
The pantry program is part of a broader effort by local school resource officers to meet students’ basic needs. In addition to providing snacks, officers have also helped launch the Strengthening Outreach, Community and Kindness (SOCK) program, which provides new socks to students in need. Through a partnership with Bombas, SROs have provided more than 450 pairs of new socks to students after its initial launch last year.
Flynn said programs like the snack pantries and the SOCK initiative work together to support students in simple but meaningful ways.
“Together, we are making a difference one conversation, one snack, one pair of socks, and one relationship at a time,” Flynn said.
The Battle Ground Education Foundation (BGEF) provides a $500 annual stipend to support the program. Executive Director Jennifer McCoy said the foundation will sponsor the Cram the Cruiser event by supporting the logistics and sending volunteers to fill both school pantries.
“SROs use this as a way to start making relationships with kids; they invite them to come in and have a snack and a visit,” McCoy said. “Some of them are there because they're hungry, but others are there because they would like to visit, and just having that snack and a minute to sit down lowers barriers to communication.”
Flynn said the event reflects a broader goal of turning the pantries into a shared community effort.
“A community-wide event gives our residents a direct, tangible way to invest in the well-being of Battle Ground's students, and to participate in the relationship-building mission that the pantries represent,” Flynn said.
As demand for the pantries has grown, organizers say supplies have struggled to keep up. Anderson said more than a dozen students visit the Tiger’s Table every day on average. Cram the Cruiser is designed to help close that gap while also bringing the broader community into the effort.
“I'm imagining that through the Cram the Cruiser event we'll be able to ensure that those pantries are stocked through the end of the year, and that kind of security and predictability for those pantries is critical to their success, so I'm really excited about this event,” McCoy said.
Organizers are asking for individually packaged, non-perishable snack items that are easy for students to grab during the school day. All donations collected during the event will go directly to restocking the pantries at both schools.
