Gatesville ISD pantry offers year-round food help at primary school

At Gatesville Primary School, families had a year-round place to pick up milk, fruit, potatoes and meat without making a separate trip across town. Gatesville ISD’s Stinger Stash and Market Place has become a quiet part of the district’s support system, with Michelle Martin and Pam Williams serving as the contacts at 254-865-7251.

The pantry opened in December 2024 and marked its one-year anniversary in December 2025. In that first year, Central Texas Food Bank said the market filled hundreds of tables, reached 800 visits by its third month and recorded more than 1,500 visits in one month after opening. The pantry was open twice a week and used a choice-based model, letting families pick the foods they needed most instead of receiving a prepacked box.

Martin said she began seeing the need during truancy-related home visits, where she encountered children and parents living in homes without heat, running water or food in the cabinets. That kind of instability can show up in school as missed days, fatigue and difficulty focusing, which makes the pantry more than a convenience. It gives Gatesville ISD a way to respond before a family’s short-term crisis turns into a longer stretch of stress for a student.

Before Stinger Stash opened, food access in Gatesville was limited. Central Texas Food Bank said one pantry served families only once a month, and help often depended on word of mouth and neighbors helping neighbors. By placing the pantry inside a primary school and keeping it available through the district’s community outreach page, Gatesville ISD lowered the barrier for families who may already be on campus for pickup, enrollment, discipline issues or other school business.

The need extends well beyond one campus. A Central Texas Food Bank study released in October 2025 found that 17,000 Coryell County residents, or 20.9% of the county, faced food insecurity. The same study found Coryell County had only four large-scale grocers, residents traveled an average of 13 miles to reach a supermarket and there were nearly 15 times more convenience stores and fast-food restaurants than supermarkets or grocery stores. Three in five food-insecure residents said they wanted healthy foods they could not afford.

Martin has spent 19 years with Gatesville ISD and also serves as the district’s community events coordinator and truancy specialist, which helps explain why she became the face of the pantry. In a county where grocery access is thin and food insecurity is high, Stinger Stash functions as a practical safety net, tying food help to a school routine families already know and trust.