St. Vrain schools collect tons of food for needy

It’s the season for giving, and many schools in the St. Vrain Val´ley School District are stepping up to help out those in need in the district’s communities.

The district has held a canned food drive for “quite a few years,” said food drive chair Ryan Ball, principal at Eagle Crest Ele´mentary School.

Eagle Crest Elementary School students, from left, McKinzie Doud, 5, Ashley Mae, 5, Aislynn Fehlberg, 9, and Raven Moe, 9, combine collected canned goods into one box last week. Twenty-eight schools in Longmont are participating in this annual food drive; all collected items will be donated to Community Food Share. Photo by Kira Horvath.

“Last year, the drive raised about 42,000 pounds of food,  which was donated to Longmont area food banks,” he said. “We are hoping to bring in even more this year.”

The drive runs until tomorrow and most Long´mont-area schools, including Ea´gle Crest, participate, Ball said.

“We try to get the students in´terested by running competitions between classes or schools,” Ball said. “Sometimes the schools offer incentives to bring in canned food, like a pizza party for the winning class or having the principal or a favorite teacher volunteer to do something silly for the class with the most cans collected.”

Most of the schools partner with their student councils to sponsor the drive, he said.

On Monday, a team of SVVSD principals will “don our Santa hats and head out to collect all the do´nations from the schools,” Ball said.

Members of the team this year include Ball, John Wahler of San´born Elementary, Deanna Froth´ingham of Alpine Elementary, Ed´die Cloke of Columbine Elementary, Steven Hoel of Rocky Mountain Elementary, and Mike O’Donnell of Hygiene Elemen´tary. Superintendent Don Haddad may also join the group, Ball said.

The district also gets help from Golden Transport Company of Longmont, which donates a truck and an employee’s time for the day.

Erie Elementary held its canned food drive in November, while Black Rock Elementary held its food drive this week. Da´cono, Frederick and Firestone-area schools also collected canned food, but their donations are be´ing given to the Erie Community Food Bank and the Tri-Towns Food Bank programs. Alpine Ele´mentary has designated its food donations for the food bank at the Outreach United Resource Center in Longmont.

But cans of food are not the only things being collected in the schools. Skyline High School held a special holiday lunch on Friday to raise funds for families in need at the school. Niwot High School drama and food science students held a “Taste of Niwot Dessert Theater Night,” with the drama proceeds going to benefit a Boul´der County family in need. Niwot Elementary also collected dona´tions for needy Boulder County families.

Fall River Elementary and Cen´tennial Elementary sponsored “giving trees” to collect gifts for children and families. Skyline High School’s National Honor So´ciety chapter also sponsored a “giving tree” for needy families. Black Rock Elementary also spon´sored a gift bag drive to provide gifts for area families in need.

And it wasn’t just children and families who received a helping hand this year. Students at Blue Mountain Elementary in Long´mont conducted a “Howl-a-ween” pet food and supplies drive in Oc´tober for the Longmont Humane Society. Eight boxes of donated supplies — about 100 pounds of pet food and supplies — were col´lected during the drive.

“Our students really liked col´lecting supplies for the Longmont Humane Society,” said Principal Kristie Venrick. “Many of them said they thought about their own pets while they were gathering donations.”

Email: kcglasscock@comcast.net