Schools collect 24,400 pounds of food
Published Friday December 19th, 2008
District 2's Fill the Bus campaign shatters goal in collection for Metro Moncton food banks
It'll be an early Christmas present for the students of Hillsborough Elementary School students.
The youngsters successfully raised over 500 pounds of food for School District 2's Fill The Bus campaign, which benefits Food Depot Alimentaire and the 23 food banks in southeastern New Brunswick that it serves.
What this means for the students in Hillsborough is they get to throw pies in the faces of their teachers this afternoon.
The pie-throwing challenge was laid down by the school as an incentive to get the students to raise all the non-perishable food items they could for the food depot.
Vice-principal Barry Snider laughed yesterday afternoon when asked what it meant that the kids were so eager to meet their goal.
"We're hoping it says we really wanted to raise food for those that need it," he says. "I'm not sure ... but that's what we're saying anyway."
Surely it had little to do with the chance to drift a pie into the face of your favourite teacher.
He says the kids have been really excited about the campaign. They were just short of their goal earlier this week, so the school extended its drive by a day to help the kids out. Food poured in yesterday morning, so the kids were able to meet their goal.
For every item someone brought in, they got their name entered into a draw for the chance to toss a pie in the face of a teacher. Ten students will get the honour and a half-dozen teachers, including Snider, will receive the pies right on the nose.
The rest of the students in District 2, no doubt proud of their own efforts, are likely to be jealous when they find out what their peers at Hillsborough Elementary get to do.
But the enthusiasm yesterday was clear throughout the district's schools.
District 2 had set a goal of 20,000 pounds (9,072 kg) of food to be collected. Last year, they were just shy of it with 19,000 pounds (8,618 kg).
Students this year shattered the goal, donating 24,400 pounds (11,068 kg) of food.
The pie-in-the-face incentive was just one of many laid out by schools in the district during the campaign, which officially wraps up today.
Other schools offered pizza parties or extended breaks between classes.
Yesterday, seven buses travelled to many of the schools in District 2, collecting thousands of pounds of food and delivering it to volunteers at the food depot, while schools in outlying areas like Petitcodiac and Port Elgin dropped food off themselves to food banks.
Today, final boxes of food will be picked up from a few of the schools that still had items coming in.
The school to beat in past years was Birchmount School. The kindergarten-Grade 8 school has raised the most food for the Fill The Bus campaign the last three years, raising a whopping 1,200 kg (2,646 pounds) last year.
It looks like the school may have finally been trumped this year, however. As of yesterday, Bernice MacNaughton High School raised 2,268 kg (5,000 pounds), of food.
Word last night was Birchmount was sending out a voicemail to parents noting their record might be trumped in an effort to bring in some more food.
The school had a final event planned to benefit the food drive last night.
It's all in the spirit of friendly competition.
Bernice MacNaughton principal Gary Wilson was wowed by the 5,000 pounds of food the students raised. He says the school did a variety of activities aimed at raising food for the drive, including holding a video dance where instead of paying admission, students had to bring in non-perishable food items.
A hockey game was arranged between students and teachers, and admission was the same.
In addition to bringing in food, students raised $800 for the drive. They spent it this week at Sobeys on Vaughan Harvey Boulevard.
BMHS's lobby was jammed with food yesterday. District 2 had to send a second bus to the school to pick up all the food, and it took students about 30 minutes to clear it all out.
Wilson says he was inspired to really push this campaign at the school after Food Depot Alimentaire representatives made a presentation to area principals last year, explaining the desperate need for food that some people in the area face.
He says students need to realize that not everyone is as fortunate as some of them are.
"They have a responsibility to give back," he says. "I'm really proud that they stepped up."
At schools yesterday, students were running in and out of the school, grabbing boxes upon boxes of food and carrying them onto the buses.
At Harrison Trimble High School, Grade 12 student Justin Allain, who brought in over 100 food items himself, said he stepped up to the plate to help out and spur younger students to get involved in some charitable work.
"I think it's important that everyone has a good Christmas," he says.
Tyler Carson is one Grade 9 student at the school who took those words to heart.
Carson spent many days before and after school, sorting and counting food brought in by students.
Yesterday morning, he was right in the thick of things at Food Depot Alimentaire, unloading buses as they rolled in and helping sort food. Seven Grade 9 students from HTHS volunteered to miss class and spend their day at the food depot yesterday.
"The food depot and food banks don't have enough food for everybody who comes in," Carson says. "And everyone needs food at Christmas and after Christmas."
Ken Rafuse, manager of operations at the depot, says the Fill The Bus campaign is the biggest campaign of the year for the depot.
"Nothing else comes close," he said as students bustled around him, unpacking and sorting food.
Knowing that hundreds of youngsters across District 2 raised so much food "gives you a greater sense of community."
"They're here because they want to be, not because they have to be," he says of the students.
Rafuse says students get the chance to learn that there is a large network in the region that helps those less fortunate.
At Birchmount School yesterday morning, the 36 members of the Grade 8 Leadership Corps carted food out of the school and onto a bus. The students were all proudly wearing their Leadership Corps T-shirts and marching dutifully back and forth with box after box of food.
"They're a really good bunch," says Mike Richard, a Grade 8 teacher and the head of the leadership program.
He says the school has been so successful in gathering food for the Fill The Bus campaign because the Grade 8 students themselves present it to the rest of the school.
"I think that the leadership kids, who are all in Grade 8, they put on a good presentation that spurs the younger kids on," he explains.
Jordan Henry, a Grade 8 student at the school, says it is nice to help people in need.
"There's a lot of people in Moncton that can't afford enough food to eat," he says.
Aubrey Kirkpatrick, District 2's director of finance, administration and communications, says the Fill The Bus campaign is all about "children helping children."
"People are very generous, especially at Christmas time," he says. "It's the season of giving and people are extremely generous."
Last night after the buses finished making their runs, Kirkpatrick said there were many in School District 2's offices with sore backs from all the lifting.
He said every school, big or small, did its part to make the Fill The Bus campaign a success.
"We're extremely grateful to people in the community who helped us make this a success," he says.
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