It might be said that Laurie Taylor-Mitchell’s schools-centric activism has followed her son’s path since 2000 through Baltimore County Public Schools.

Though her son, Andrew Mitchell, is now 23, Taylor-Mitchell, 61, has circled back to the county schools to champion students in need.

Taylor-Mitchell was a professor of art history at Hood College in Frederick for 10 years before she immersed herself in the county schools as a volunteer and activist.

She started hosting presentations on the arts at Hampton Elementary School when her son attended. The topics included cave paintings, ancient Greece and Civil War, for which she donned a period costume and acted as a teacher from the era.

“That was a blast,” she said. “To have something that excited the kids so much was instant gratification.”

Andrew moved on to Ridgely Middle School in Timonium. When Taylor-Mitchell found out the school would be renovated without central air conditioning, she spent nearly four years working with other advocates until they got the AC.

When her son was at Loch Raven High School, Taylor-Mitchell pushed to block a 400-seat addition in 2007 because, she said, areas such as hallways and cafeterias would have been compromised.

In 2010, Taylor-Mitchell received an award from the Teachers Association of Baltimore County for Meritorious Service as an outstanding educator for her work to improve the public schools.

In 2015 she turned her attention to researching student poverty rates and finding ways to advocate on behalf of students in need.

She says an article in the Towson Times about a program that gives a bag of food each week to students in need prompted her to start researching county students living in poverty. She discovered that nearly 300 students at Loch Raven High School, her son’s alma mater, fit the criteria.

“That there was that kind of poverty in the county we live in was astounding,” Taylor-Mitchell said.

More than 43 percent of Baltimore County students are enrolled in the free or reduced-price meals program this school year, according to the state Department of Education.

At Loch Raven High, the figure this year is 31 percent. Taylor-Mitchell said 15 students were identified by faculty and staff in December as homeless.

As Christmas 2015 approached, Taylor-Mitchell put out a plea on social media for four volunteers to help five students and their families in dire need. Over the next 17 days, she said, 128 volunteers donated enough food baskets, toiletry bags and gifts to help 25 families.

“Inspired by how the community responded,” she said, she began developing a program to help students all year long. The result was the Loch Raven Network, with a Room of Support to provide food, clothing and personal care items for Loch Raven High students in need. The network is made up of volunteers, churches and community members who donate money, in-kind donations and time.

The group now also runs the Parkville Pantry at Parkville High School with that school’s parent-teacher association. That pantry also carries pots and pans, bedding and alarm clocks for students to make it to school on time.

The Loch Raven Network incorporated last year as a nonprofit “to make it easier for people to donate,” she said, and for like programs at other county schools to join.

Outside the network, similar efforts to stock support rooms have launched at schools including Towson High and Dumbarton Middle schools.

At Loch Raven High, school social worker Caryn Putchat has seen firsthand the benefit the Room of Support offers students.

“Students are happy to know that there is such a room. It’s nice to tell them they can take whatever they need,” Putchat said. “It’s a wonderful resource for our families.”

Taylor-Mitchell’s mission now is to continue to expand the Loch Raven Network, by showing schools how they can start programs providing students with basic needs.

“This deep-entrenched poverty is going to be a problem for many, many years,” she said. “Hopefully this can be handed from volunteer group to volunteer group to keep the effort going.”

Elizabeth Eck of the Baltimore Sun Media Group contributed to this article.