A seventh-grade boy’s shoes were splitting apart.
The seams had opened on both sides, his feet bursting through. The student kept wearing them as he grew, the damage getting worse. On cold days, and rainy days, and in P.E., his toes peeked through, the soles worn thin.
Lucas Bradbury couldn’t help but notice. And when he did, he looked around and saw that this student wasn’t alone in this particular need.
Bradbury is the Community School Coordinator at Butte County Community School in Chico, a Butte County Office of Education alternative education campus serving students in grades 7-12. Outgrown shoes are just one of the many barriers that students at community schools face in their pursuit of educational success. Part of the charge of BCCS is to identify and address those barriers beyond curriculum, to provide safety and solutions for students and families who need them the most.
So, Bradbury–BCOE’s 2024 “Rookie of the Year” award winner– started looking for shoes.
“Being an alternative education school comes with the reality of low socioeconomic backgrounds, sometimes parents not working at all,” Bradbury said. “And one kid was the spark. I was noticing families of three, four students that went here, and all their shoes were pretty well worn. That was my catalyst.”
Eventually Bradbury’s trail led to an organization in Tennessee: Soles4Souls, one of the few groups in the country set up to distribute large volumes of new, name-brand shoes directly to schools. The first shipment finally arrived.
“People like Lucas and his colleagues can offer shoes to their most vulnerable children in a way that is dignifying and confidential and done with sensitivity,” said Tiffany Turner, Soles4Souls’s Vice President of Outreach. “It builds a bridge. It meets a need. And it opens the door to more trust between the student, the family, and their educators.”
Since Bradbury’s initial outreach, hundreds of pairs of shoes and socks have moved through Butte County Community School — not just for students, but for their families as well.
The numbers matter less than the pattern: students who had been wearing shoes with holes now rotate between a school pair and a pair for physical education. Socks without worn-through soles became something kids lined up for.
“I like my new shoes, I get to wear them to P.E.,” one student said.
“I now don’t have shoes with holes in them,” another added. “I look and feel cool.”
A boy who didn’t take shoes for himself chose a pair of Toms for his mother instead, because he knew her size.
“We see through the data we collect that children feel more confident and have more of a sense of belonging,” Turner said. “We’ve read countless impact stories about attendance being affected when students don’t have proper footwear or clothing. If they don’t have the right shoes, it keeps them out of things that make them feel like they belong.”
BCCS is referral-based. Students may arrive after being expelled, suspended, or disengaging from their home campuses. Many come from families under financial strain. Some are living in unstable housing.
That is why the school does not treat clothing, basic supplies, or even food as extras. They are part of how students get through the day.
“It’s just the school that we are–we really live the community school model,” Bradbury said. “And because we’re so small, we’re able to drill down into family needs, not only student needs.”
Battling Food Insecurity at BCCS
Bradbury’s same persistence that went into finding shoes went into finding food.
Bradbury spent nearly a year trying to secure a stable supply of fresh produce for students and their families. Early partnerships were irregular. Some deliveries consisted of day-old donations from hospitals and restaurants. Students noticed. The need didn’t go away.
“I know, fundamentally, that our students are not getting the nutrition they need–they’re not getting fresh produce, fruits, vegetables. They don’t have access to it, especially for free,” Bradbury said. “So, we went out and provided it.”
On a drive to a meeting in Glenn County, Bradbury noticed a food distribution on a reservation and asked who was running it. That question sent him first to Willows, then back to Chico, and eventually to the Butte County Local Food Network, which now provides weekly fresh produce to BCCS families. BCLFN works with farmers across the county to bring fresh, locally grown produce into the community, including schools like BCCS.
Now, once a week, 10 bags of produce arrive at BCCS. Each bag represents a household. Some go to families of three; one family of nine receives two bags. The count changes week to week. Before Thanksgiving, all 10 bags went out, feeding more than 30 people. A week later, it was fewer. The needs fluctuate, but they don’t disappear. Though federal grant funding for programs like BCLFN has ceased for now, BCCS is determined to continue meeting those needs.
At first, some students didn’t want to be seen taking food. Bradbury and staff walked the bags out to cars so kids wouldn’t have to carry them across campus. Over time, that changed. Now students line up. Some step forward to thank the person unloading the truck. They carry the bags themselves.
“When I tell the farmers about the kids and how they come out, climb in my truck and get their food bags, it’s just really special to see what it means to everyone,” said Donna Garrison, an administrator with BCLFN. “You think about, ‘Do these kids have food that is good for their bodies, good for their brains?’ And so the hope is that’s what we’re providing for them.”
The Community School Model in Action
The efforts are paying off, Bradbury said. On Wednesdays, when the produce arrives, more students show up. Shoes that once kept kids out of P.E. now sit in a second row by the door, swapped in and out as needed. One student didn’t come to school for the first five days of the year. When staff texted to ask why, he kept giving the same answer: he didn’t have anything new to wear. Shoes were part of it. When the school offered him a pair, he came back.
This is the logic of a community school: barriers aren’t theoretical. A pair of shoes can decide whether a student comes to school. A bag of produce can decide whether a family eats fresh food that week.
“There are opportunities for students to get things that alleviate barriers of coming to school,” Bradbury said.
At BCCS, the work is not to pretend those barriers don’t exist, or to hope students push through them. It is to notice them early and address them so students can succeed.
Travis Souders is the Communications Officer at the Butte County Office of Education.
For more information about Butte County Community School, visit bccs.bcoe.org.
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