On Thursday afternoon, volunteers from the Helping Hand Food Bank were at Fieldcrest Elementary School on Professor Day Drive picking up a large donation of non-perishable food items collected by students and staff members throughout the month of November.
Fieldcrest is the largest elementary school in Simcoe County, so there was a lot of food to be loaded into the food bank's van on Thursday. The entire school took part in the food drive, with competitions between classes to see who could bring in the most amount of goods.
With help from Grade 3 teacher Michelle Major and Vice-Principal Martin Orr, the van was fully loaded with the boxes and bags of donations within 20 minutes.
Orr says so many of the students were eager to take part in the drive, which created a sense of "normalcy" in these strange, COVID times.
"I've been doing this (food drive) for 10 years, and we've never had this much food," noted Major.
Last year, all food drives were suspended due to COVID-19, with the food bank relying mainly on monetary donations.
"It was nice to be getting back to normal and helping our community," said Major.
Grade 6 student Brody was happy to help support the cause.
"It's amazing that we get to give all this to people in need," he said. "We got a big box and filled it up with cans, oatmeal, cereal...and so many other classes did the same thing."
Grade 3 teacher Jenn Manuge says the students were all excited to be part of the initiative, especially when turning it into a fun competition.
"It's a fun initiative for sure," said Manuge. "This is the most food I've seen (in the drive)."
In her class, Manuge incorporated her class's donations into some of her lesson plans.
"The kids were so into it, we marked the food down, counted it all as a math lesson," she explained. She also said it was a good way to talk to her students about what the food bank is all about and what the donations mean for members of the community.
In the end, it was Mrs.T's Kindergarten class who ended up winning the friendly school competition, bringing in the most donations.
The food bank has a few other pickups from local schools and organizations that are also participating in food drives over the next few weeks. They are grateful for all the support received so far this year.
To learn more about how to donate, visit the food bank's website here.
