One day at PS 52 in Queens, a United Community School, 1^st-graders were dressed for a performance in the requisite white T-shirt and jeans. But one student’s shirt was far too small.

“It looked like she was wearing her little sister’s top,” said teacher Elena Ellis.

Luckily, the school had a solution: a little room called the community closet, stocked with children’s clothes in all sizes. “We found something that was a better fit for her, and she was able to perform without standing out,” said Ellis.

The Springfield Gardens school has a large population of students living in shelters or doubled up with relatives, and they are often “in need of some of the basics,” explained Sarah Fay, the magnet director at the school.

Once the school community identified the unmet need for clothing, staff, parents and community members worked to meet the need – the perfect example of a UCS program. They collected and stored donated clothes and, ultimately, devised a strategic partnership to expand the program.

Ellis recalled another student who had arrived on her first day without a warm-enough jacket. If not for the closet, she said, the student “would have had to stay inside and not interact with her peers at recess.”

Other times, as in every elementary school, accidents happen, and students need a change of clothes to get through the day. Thanks to the community closet, “the parent is able to stay at work and the child doesn’t miss any school,” said Fay. “That’s huge.”

For about five years, Community School Director Tanisha A’see would store community donations and clothing from an informal partnership with The Gap in cardboard boxes and storage containers in her office. Staff members would help fold, sort and organize, and they would alert A’see when students needed clothing.

“We were making it work,” A’see said, but the program needed a dedicated space. That’s when a partnership with the Fashion Foundation began. In the spring of 2022, the nonprofit gave a sunny storage room in the school a fresh coat of paint, installed furniture and fixtures, and stocked the room with $5,000 worth of new children’s clothing.

The school also devised creative ways to distribute the clothing, including setting up tables outdoors during parent-teacher conference days to hand out winter wear for both children and adults, many facing their first cold winter in New York. The clothing giveaway also provided more interactions with parents and their children’s teachers.

PS 52 educators are always mindful of privacy concerns. They ask parents for permission to provide clothing, then discreetly distribute it.

“We don’t beat the drum about it, but it quietly fills a need and allows for dignity,” said Ellis.

It’s part of the school’s larger mission to fill the equity gap. PS 52 families, Fay said, “should have whatever other people have.”