Room 113 looks like any other office at Helen Arnold Community Learning Center — until you take a closer look. Food pantry shelves stocked with backpacks, school supplies, paper towels, tissues, laundry detergent, applesauce, cereal bars and chips signal something more.
It’s the school’s Family Resource Center, one of six embedded across Akron Public Schools. All are open to anyone in the community and function as hubs for the district’s broader community engagement.
Services include food but span beyond — from hair supplies for students to long-term assistance with the help of a caseworker from Summit County Job and Family Services.
When families show up to pick up food at Helen Arnold CLC’s food pantry, family liaison Tonya Grant tells them they’re entering “Helen’s Kitchen.” It’s her way to make the space more inviting and to minimize any feelings of inadequacy.
Grant said she helps as many as 30 families a week, and those numbers rose during the 2025 holiday season.
“It feels good to help someone put things in place,” said Grant, who has served as the center’s family liaison for the past five years. “When a mother comes in … my heart goes straight to that.”
Family Resource Centers in Akron are located at:
- Helen Arnold CLC
- David Hill CLC
- Hyre CLC
- McEbright CLC
- North High
- I Promise School
Resource centers offer hope without judgment to the community
Jontayesha Brown, the parent of two Helen Arnold students, knows how hard it can be to ask for help: She’s used the center to fill in gaps with her home supplies.
Nowadays, Brown volunteers with the center when she can. She was there on a recent wintery Tuesday with Grant, another parent, two state officials and a local caseworker with Job and Family Services.
Their goal? Brainstorm ways to engage parents.
“I try to draw a lot of people in here because that’s what they’re here for,” Brown said. “A lot of people don’t understand that.”
Despite her best efforts, some parents don’t admit they need help. That’s when Brown takes volunteering to a different level — delivering pantry food and items to families.
“It’s a helping thing,” she said. “That’s all that matters, help someone.”
Number of families helped growing with time and swelling with holiday season
Bernard Swain, the local caseworker, couldn’t agree more. He spends three days a week at Helen Arnold helping to connect families to long-term public benefits. His presence, and that of his colleagues at the other resource centers, is the byproduct of collaboration between Akron Public Schools, local government and the United Way of Summit and Medina, which is based in five of the six school sites.
“I try to do the best I can to connect our community and our clients to resources to help the needs within the community,” Swain said.
His primary focus is connecting families to benefits such as SNAP, temporary monetary assistance and Medicaid. This year, he set the high water mark for families contacted in a month with 70, a significant increase from when he first started four years ago at Helen Arnold. Then, he often met with 10 families a month.
Through word of mouth and a focused effort to inform families of available resources at family resource centers, that number has risen markedly.
“When we can meet that need right then,” Swain said, “that relieves the pressure, and it also [puts] the parent at ease, which flows down to the child.”
