In our own communities, as well as those surrounding us, there are people living in poverty, homeless and starving. ABOVE: Bryant High School teacher and “Spirit Swarm” team leader Janet Watson, middle, works with her students on placing recently donated canned food items into boxes. The BHS students are donating items through Friday for the statewide Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance “Spirit of Giving” campaign and Watson said anyone in the public can donate to the school. From left, BHS Senior Alex Hughes, 17, Watson, and Senior Ashton Williams, 17.
With this in mind, several students in local schools and various organizations decided to step up and help out through various canned food drives.
Through these donations, hundreds of boxes of macaroni, bags of rice, cans of beans and vegetables and other items will fill trucks and be distributed throughout Saline County and other Central Arkansas areas. According to organizations like the Salvation Army of Saline County and various church food pantries, this still may not be enough to help everyone in need.
“We’ve experienced a heavy volume of people coming to ask for food, and we simply cannot provide enough without some help,” said Mark Cox, student pastor at Indian Springs Baptist Church in Bryant. “Our goal is to basically help out people who often don’t know where their next meal or any food is coming from.”
“We are always in need of support from anyone in the community,” said Salvation Army Director Todd Skaggs. “We help anyone we can in the community, but we can’t do our part without people donating time, money or to our food pantry.”
Sara Perry, a legal advocate with Safe Haven Inc. in Benton, agrees with Skaggs’ sentiments.
“We are always needing help from people so that we can help those in desperate need,” she said. “There is always a great need for food to be given to us, plus other things like clothing, toothbrushes and other necessities. In a lot of ways, we are almost like a homeless shelter sometimes. We have a constant need for supplies.”
In response, several local schools — Benton, Bryant and Harmony Grove — began canned food fundraising drives before and after Thanksgiving. In less than one week, students at Westbrook Elementary in Haskell (Harmony Grove School District) collected 1,384 pounds of food during a districtwide canned food drive. Peggy Boles, whose first-grade class led the donations, won extra recess and candy, while the teacher received gift certificate to Colton’s restaurant. She said the goal of the drive was to encourage students do something for other people and noted that the food will be given to families in the Haskell area.
Benton Middle School students recently filled up two truck loads of canned goods and dry foods, plus they raised $1,300.
“It was pretty amazing when we all brought our cans and other food together,” BMS Counselor Becky Comet said. “The middle school Student Council got the word out through posters and word of mouth and they held team competitions. All the students got very excited and into it. By the time they saw how much we put together, they were amazed, too.”
Comet said she has been involved in the program since she moved here nearly eight years ago. She said everyone is always grateful for the program and the students are also proud to help, while acknowledging that a free nacho plate and extra time out of the classroom for the winning team was a motivating factor for the students.
Benton School District’s Ringgold Elementary also donated just under 100 cans that filled up two grocery carts.
All the proceeds and food were then taken to the Churches Joint Council on Human Needs in Benton. CJCOHN, organized in 1976, provides food, clothing, furnishings, other household goods and utility assistance to persons in need of help.
A representative of CJCOHN told the Courier the organization plans to distribute 700 Christmas baskets filled with food and some toys on Monday, Dec. 21 at its facility, 103 E. Elm St. in Benton. To sign up to receive a Christmas basket, or to make a monetary or food donation, call or visit CJCOHN between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Tuesday or Friday.
In Bryant, students are continuing to collect canned goods for Christmas, after having a successful campaign just before Thanksgiving. The high school organizations — Junior Civitan, National Honor Society, and JROTC — along with students and staff collected more than 1,473 pounds of food and more than $500 to purchase turkeys just in time for Thanksgiving.
“The ROTC students were able to assemble 60 boxes of food in all, with 50 being Boxes of Love that were delivered to families here in Saline County,” Bryant Director of Communications Jessica Norris said. “The remaining food donations were donated to the Arkansas Rice Depot.”
Norris also said students at Davis Elementary School in Shannon Hills collected 2,317 cans and boxes of food between Nov. 2 and 18 as part of the “Lend-A-Hand, Bring-A-Can Thanksgiving Food Drive.” The food later was taken to Healing Waters Food Bank in Shannon Hills. Norris said the donated food was assembled into 30 Thanksgiving boxes to Living Stone Fellowship Church to feed hungry families coming to them for assistance.
“Also, four abundant holiday boxes were delivered to families here at Davis Elementary that are in need this season,” she said. “When Healing Waters Executive Director Robert Holt received the food, he was extremely appreciative of the unexpected donation.”
“(Holt) prayed when we arrived that they would have enough food this season to feed the hungry families in the Shannon Hills community,” said Davis Parent Teacher Organization President Brandi Soucy. “We just hope we can make a huge difference in easing the strain of the upcoming holiday.”
Bryant High School students are not stopping with the canned food fundraisers. According to Janet Watson, who heads the high school Spirit Swarm Team, students are donating food items through Friday. Although the ultimate goal is to “get as much food as possible,” she said there is a statewide donation goal involving various Arkansas schools that hope to collect 5,000 pounds of food. She said the statewide donation drive is through the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance Spirit of Giving campaign and the school that donates the most will receive $1,500.
Watson encouraged not only students and school staff to donate food, but also issued a challenge to those in the community.
“Come drop off some canned or boxed food up at the (BHS) front office,” she said. “We’ll send someone up to retrieve them.”
Students at the school who donate at least two cans of food will be eligible to put their names into a drawing. On Friday, during a high school pep rally, four $25 gift certificates will be given to the students whose names are drawn.
It isn’t just school stepping up, but local youth at various local churches even knocked on neighborhood doors in Saline County to raise donations. In October, close to 300 youths participated in the “Outlit” door-to-door donation drive with the goal of restocking food shelves of Central Arkansas food pantries, soup kitchens and other organizations. Josh Robertson, a youth pastor at Revolution Church and co-event organizer, said between 4,500 and 5000 canned good donations were collected in one weekend.
“We are still taking donations ... we are not done,” he said. “I’ll come by and pick them up. I am just afraid there is someone out there (in Saline and Pulaski counties) that set out some canned goods ready to be donated and we just missed them. And if someone still wants to donate, we won’t turn anyone down.”
Robertson said anyone still wanting to donate food items to the Outlit food drive program should call him at 778-9977. The food is donated to CJCOHN, The Care Center and the Arkansas Food Bank (associated with First Southern Baptist Church in Bryant).
“When we showed up at a lot of homes, people already had boxes and bags filled up to donate,” Robertson said. “They said they read about the event in the Courier and wanted to help out. It was just amazing how everything came together. Collecting that many canned goods made a huge impact on us, and I am sure it will make an impact on others, too.”
Indian Springs Baptist Church Pastor Mark Cox added: “When the youth see the impact they’ll make, I think they’ll see life a little differently.”
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