December 11, 2009
‘Bless these kids and their involvement’
Students help the poor with food drives, class competitions
Students at Resurrection School gather in front of items donated for the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry. They include, front row, Jillian Tomes, Michaela Kunkler, Tamarea Kramer, Olivia Adler, Hannah Nosko, Mackenzie Zirkelbach, Madison Schuler, second row, Trevor Dale, Jared Abney, Hannah Ubelhor, Dana Hunt, Sarah Claybon, Mackenzie Schuler, Laura Berendes, Taylor Mayer, Emily Hassler and Haley Anson. Click for a larger version.
By MARY ANN HUGHES (Message staff writer)
Times are tough, but during these tough times Catholic school students are remembering the poor with canned food drives and class competitions. Thanks to their efforts area food pantries, homeless shelters and nursing homes are getting stocked for the winter.
EVANSVILLE
• “We had a “War on Hun-ger” competition between the classes,” said Jeanne Thomas math teacher and student council advisor at Mater Dei High School in Evansville.
“Small packages, small cans and boxes, large cans and dollars were each worth different positive point values. Cans of yams were worth negative points and could be used to ‘bomb’ other classes to make them lose points. Homeroom reps used the donated money to purchase other items.
“For the past several years, we have donated cans to the Little Sisters of the Poor, the Ozanam Family Shelter, and Matthew 25 (an organization that serves AIDS patients). This year, we received a request from the Evansville Rescue Mission spe-cifically for yams — that’s where the ‘yam bomb’ idea originated. Also this year, the Ozanam Shelter requested other necessary items for their shelter, such as trash bags, toilet paper, instead of just canned goods.
“We collected approximately 4,000 items.”
• “Christ the King School collected 1,213 canned goods/non-perishable items for the Little Sisters’ of the Poor,” said Sister Mary Karen Bahlmann, principal. “These Sisters manage a home for the poor and elderly. The Sisters brought their truck to CTK, and the junior high youngsters loaded the food into the truck. The Sisters were surprised to see so much food in cans!”
• “We collected two and half pick up trucks full of food,” said Marty Craig, principal at Corpus Christ School. “It was filled to the brim! Our parish St. Vincent de Paul Society delivered the items to the St. Vincent de Paul Society.
“Students had a competition between grades to add to the excitement. We called Sister Donna Marie Herr at St. Vincent de Paul, and found out she needed creamed corn, cereal and pork and beans so they were worth more points.
“Our student council helped count the canned goods everyday for us.”
• Judy Van Hoosier, principal at Good Shepherd School, said, “Our collections go to the St. Vincent DePaul Food Pantry. The food collection was successful. I also encourage monetary donations informing parents of the buying power the pantry has. They also purchase baby formula and baby food as well as paper products.
“We combine with the entire parish. Together we were able to send a check for over $1,800 as well as the many donated food items. Good Shepherd will hold another food drive the week before Christmas break.
“Parents often tell me how their grocery bill skyrockets when the children are off from school. These drives are great ways to help those in need in our community.”
• Holy Redeemer School joined the parish wide effort to collect non-perishable items to be distributed through St. Vin-cent DePaul, the soup kitchen and the parish, according to Marianne Webster, principal.
• At Holy Rosary we have not recently done a collection specifically of food, but we do a collection called T.E.P.E. which stands for Totally Essential Products Extravaganza,” said Joan Fredrich, principal.
“The students collect essential items and household goods such as soap, shampoo, deodorant, lotion, toothpaste and brushes, laundry detergent, dish washing liquid, toilet paper, paper towels and so on. We give these items to our parish Giving Tree Committee who then creates baskets for distribution to needy families.
“In addition, through the Giving Tree program our grades five through eight adopt three families for Christmas. Some of the families helped are Holy Rosary families, and some are in the community. The Giving Tree committee works with local organizations to get the names of families who might need help.”
• The student council at Res-urrection School conducted a food drive for the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry the week before Thanksgiving, according to Angie Johnson, principal.
“Students and staff brought in canned and boxed food items and delivered four pickup truck loads of food to the food pantry on Nov. 20. The eighth grade class came in first place and the sixth grade came in second place in the contest for the class that collected the most food items.”
• “We filled the St. Ben’s sanctuary with food and paper goods,” said Benedictine Sister Karlene Sensmeier, principal of St. Benedict Cathedral School. “It all went to the Little Sisters of the Poor.”
• “During the month of October, St. Theresa school and parish collected coins and non-perishable goods for St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry,” said The-resa Berendes, principal.
“In St. Theresa School, the students had a ‘Coin Collection’ between classes during the first week of October with all proceeds also benefiting the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry. The students collected $220.62.
“This year, we also sent each student home with a re-useable grocery bag with a note attached to return the bag to school with a donation for the Food Pantry. The re-useable grocery bags were visible reminders to families to send in a donation. We attribute the success of our food drive to these visible reminders to our families. We filled a van with our donations.”
• “Westside Catholic collected over 788 cans of corn for the Rescue Mission,” said Cynthia Schneider, principal.
FORT BRANCH
Each year, the fourth grade class does something special with all the food collected, according to Tracey Unfried, principal at Holy Cross School, explaining that “they display the goods for all the students to see.
“This year they decided to wrap the goods around the school, and make designs by stacking them in a fun style.” Their donations totaled “over 500 feet of food that wrapped around our school.
“Each year we give half of the food collected to Little Sisters of the Poor and the other half to the Lord’s Pantry in Fort Branch.”
HAUBSTADT
• Students at St. James School recently held their annual canned and boxed food drive benefiting the Little Sisters of the Poor. “The students set a goal of 1,000 cans this year,” said Shelley Bealmaer, math and science teacher, “but far exceeded that goal.” The total amount of donated canned and boxed food items was 1,572.
• “Sts. Peter and Paul School collected about 30 grocery brown bags full (this is an estimate) for the Little Sisters of the Poor,” said Kalyn Herrmann, principal.
JASPER
• Judy Linette is a teacher at Holy Family School and also the student council sponsor. She said the school has been a “donator of our local food bank for the last 10 years. It started out as a service project of the student council, to help out those in need and has grown into a monthly school collection that is still sponsored by the student council.
“Here’s how it works. Each month the students in each homeroom collect a specific item that has been suggested by our food bank [because] they are in need of it. We have competitions among the grades and the race is on. Then the last Wednesday of the month the student council collects the food item and they are counted to find out the winning classroom.”
So far this year the students have collected the following: September, 472 cans of canned fruit; October, 507 cans of canned soup; November, mac-and-cheese, 564 boxes. “For the month of December we will collect baby food in honor of Baby Jesus. Also any item brought in by students is accepted. The kids love to see how many they can get, and it teaches them to reach out beyond themselves and give and take care of others. This project lets all children participate and open their hearts all year long.”
• Students at Precious Blood School collected 3,200 items for the Community Food Bank in Jasper,” said Joseph Brake, principal. “Our fourth and fifth grades, together, collected 2,000 items. We collected non-perishable canned and boxed items.”
MOUNT VERNON
“We collected 535 food items for the Mount Vernon Food Bank!” said Vickie Wanne-muehler, principal at St. Matth-ew School. “Our goal was 500. Hooray!!”
NEWBURGH
The students collected over 11,000 pounds of canned food items the week before Thanks-giving — along with 24 tur-keys!” said Char Bennett, principal at St. John the Baptist School in Newburgh.
“The food went to the Newburgh Food Pantry and the Mother Theresa Store. The kids are continuing to collect cans for the House of Bread and Peace; we provide them with food for their shelves for most of the year.”
One day last week, students were able to wear their favorite sports team shirt if they brought three cans of food. The following day — if they brought in four cans they could wear sweat suits and slippers for the day.
They also collected dollars which were used to purchase the items that the food pantry or House of Bread and Peace will need. “It usually takes all month to reach our goal,” she said, adding, “We made it in a week — 10,000 pounds! Bless these kids and their involvement in helping those that are less fortunate.”
ST. PHILIP
“St. Philip did a canned food drive and turned it into a competition,” said Andrea Lodato Dickel, principal
“We ended up collecting around 1,200 items. All of them were used to make Thanksgiv-ing food baskets for needy families in our parish. The committee putting the baskets together said it was the most food they’ve had to make the baskets in years. We were very proud and hope we can continue to be this generous in the future.”
ST. WENDEL
“On Wednesday, Nov. 25, St. Wendel School held a canned food drive to benefit the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry in Evansville,” said Ron Pittman, principal “Ten large baskets filled with canned goods and cash were delivered to the pantry by parish volunteers.”
WASHINGTON
“Washington Catholic has donated over 6,000 pounds of canned food in the past year,” said Debbie Yingst, head of the Theology Department at the high school.
“We continue to donate every six weeks. As part of our service, we donate to Feed My Sheep on a regular basis. The students collect cans and deliver them to the Feed My Sheep drop off.
“We are currently collecting for Toys for Tots and baskets for the elderly and homebound. It is amazing to see the giving spirit of our students all year long. They wait and anticipate the next service project. We are indeed blessed. In this time of economic blitz, our students do not seem to notice or care. The giving has continued if not multiplied.”