Kennebecasis Valley students collect over 10,000 food items for food banks

Kids in the Kennebecasis Valley will be filling a lot of bellies over the next few months.

Students from five schools in the area have collected more than 10,000 items of food over the past few months.

Becky MacKay, the community school co-ordinator for Rothesay Elementary and Hampton Middle School, said this is the second year students have collected food.

The idea came up when Kennebecasis Valley Food Bank mentioned it had trouble keeping shelves stocked in the early months of the year.

"After the big Christmas give, people sort of slow down," MacKay said. 

Last year, three schools participated in the food drive, collecting about 5,600 food items for the KV operation.

"We had filled the building from the floor to the rafters," said MacKay.

Donations growing

She expects the number this year to reach 12,000 items by the time the drive winds up Friday.

"The students have taken this by storm," she said.

MacKay said the students have collected food through a variety of means.

Popular ways included charging admission by food donation to in-school activities such as sock hops, and reaching out to other community groups.

But some classes took the opportunity to try to get a break as well.

"Persuasive writing is in their curriculum in Grade 4," MacKay said.

"They thought it might be neat to write a letter to their teacher persuading their teacher that if they brought in so many items it would buy them so many minutes free time."

Spreading the wealth

Last year, the food drive basically provided food to the KV food bank, although some was sent to other locations, but this year the food bank suggested splitting the food equally among more food banks.

"The KV area is a privileged [area,]" MacKay said. "There's lots of privilege here."

The food will be divided shared among food banks in the east and north ends of Saint John, the Community Food Basket and the KV food bank.  

MacKay estimated 300-plus boxes of food will be delivered to each food bank.

While there is an aspect of friendly competition among the schools, MacKay said it helps students grow as well.

"This is just helping create engaged, empathetic, conscious, community minded citizens," she said. "It's all about getting the students to think about the greater community."