Brick by brick, can by can, box by box, they spent weeks building a wall.
But it wasn’t just any wall, it was a Wall Against Hunger, and it stood large in a quest undertaken by young students in Maple Ridge to feed the less fortunate in this community.
During the first few weeks of October, students at Meadowridge School looked at ways to give back to their community.
While middle school students opted to help the Christmas Shoebox project, and high school students are assisting the Convent House, a few hundred of the school’s elementary students (junior kindergarten to Grade 5) chose to support the Friends In Need Food Bank.
It was the elementary students at the private school who came together to builds A Wall Against Hunger, and they achieved it that goal, said school spokesperson Renee Cummings..
In fact, during the course of their food drive, the students collected a total of 53 boxes and 11 totes – a total of 2,620 pounds – of non-perishables that will help the local food bank feed the growing number of needy families this fall and winter.
In particular, the Grade 4 students (46 of them in three different classes) championed the food drive, rallying all their elementary peers.
And they took the food drive a step further. Not only did they bring in food, they hosted a “buy a brick” campaign where money was donated to buy a brick (for the wall against hunger).
As food bank executive director Mary Robson explained during a presentation to the Grade 4 classes, those funds will be used to buy even more food for the food bank.
She explained how not all families have access to some basic rights such as food security and how food banks help families in their community. She also outlined how Friends in Need distributed food to different groups, and provided a list of the high-demand items most needed by the food bank.
“Please give a huge shout out thank you to all the Grade 4s for an awesome food drive – and the other participating classes,” Robson said.
“This means so much to the Friends in Need Food Bank. Your students have shown that even during uncertain times in a pandemic, the spirit of giving cannot be stopped.”
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