Install a Water Filling Station!
Atwater STEAM is a Kindergarten through Sixth grade Title 1 school in the heart of Atwater Village in Los Angeles, CA. Our student body reflects our community’s diversity, including varied religions, cultures, languages, races, economic and social realities. Our 309 students are 75% Hispanic, 17% Asian, 5% White, 2% Two or more races and 1% Black, with 81% receiving free or reduced lunch and one-fifth of the student population are students with special needs.

On any given day, if you visit Atwater Avenue Elementary School, you will see amazing things happening in every classroom. You might see students dramatizing one of their stories or learning about circuitry in the Innovation Lab or planting seeds with our Garden Ranger program. If you visit our campus after school, you will see students reading in Book Club, studying in extended learning intervention classes, doing enrichment activities with Learning for Life or playing with our Youth Services coaches.

However, you will not see many students drinking from our water fountains. Our drinking fountains are aging, unsanitary, and not always functional. Most of our campus is outdoors or in portable classrooms, and students' easy access to good-tasting, clean water is limited. The fountains fill up with debris, the water is cloudy, and the students have to walk far to reach the fountains.

Friends of Atwater Elementary wants to make our campus greener, more water wise, and healthier for our kids. A Water Bottle Filling station would provide 5 key benefits to our school community:
1. Cleaner, lead-free water with filters that remove on-average 99.3% of all lead.
2. Better tasting water with filters that remove chlorine, particulates and other taste and odor-causing minerals.
3. More sanitary means to fill water bottles with more reliable water delivery than traditional bubbler-style fountains.
3. A more attractive alternative to unhealthy soda and juice, which affords students more energy and reduces obesity. We know that more than 50% of U.S. students are chronically dehydrated, which affects their long-term health and ability to learn.
4. Reduction of plastic water bottle waste and a chance to educate students about their environmental impact on and beyond the campus.