Feeding hundreds of families every month, the Spring High School Student Council is giving back in a big way.

Through a partnership with the Houston Food Bank and Communities in Schools, the Student Council has helped lead the charge to host the Lions School Market twice a month to feed anyone in need. The market – which is absolutely free and open to anyone in the surrounding community that is in need – is held every other Wednesday behind the main building of Spring High School.

“We just saw a need, and we signed up to help feed our neighborhood,” Lakeisha Taylor, a teacher and Student Council sponsor at Spring High School, said. “We’ve got a ton of kids over there ready to help the community, to pack this food into their cars.”

The market was launched this school year, with an initial capacity to feed 150 families each market. But after selling out for several markets in a row, Student Council members decided to up their capacity to 250. 

At the most recent market, people had access to fruits and vegetables like bananas, strawberries, apricots, carrots, and raisins, as well as proteins like pinto beans, chicken leg quarters, and ground pork.

Being able to help that many community members is important to students like Kyla Taylor, a senior at Spring High School and Student Council Treasurer. 

“This is important to me because I love helping people,” she said. “It’s my intention to help everyone, no matter where I’m at, whether it’s at school or at church or wherever I’m at.”

The market is just one way the school gives back to its surrounding community. For Lakeisha Taylor, a teacher for 15 years, she has seen the struggles that many people go through. That is why she worked with Communities in Schools to bring the market to the campus. 

“Spring is a vibrant community, a working community. But we still have families here who struggle to make ends meet, that are living paycheck to paycheck,” she said. “If we can help relieve a little bit of that stress, it makes it all worth it.”