Sometimes a plan just comes together. The stars align and you meet the right people at the right time and BIG things happen. This is one of those stories.
You have already heard the first part of the story. Our partners from Mayo Regional Hospital and PRFC went into local schools during Hunger Action Month to talk about hunger with students. SeDoMoCha's 5th grade class was very moved by the thought of friends and community members being HUNGRY and wanted to do something about it. During our session we talked about different ways they could help the hungry around us and as a whole they chose to do do a Read-A-Thon, collecting food donations from family and friends for every book they read in a two week period.
Now, I may be a little biased here, my daughter is one of those students. She has been watching and listening to me talking about the work we do and understands the impact we are having on individuals and families. She asked me to reach out to my Facebook Community and ask for Sponsors. She managed to collect 17 sponsors for her Read-A-Thon and was quite thrilled. She read two books over the course of two weeks. She wrote a guest blog on #CecesCorner telling her story about the experience.
That may not sound like a lot, but she read two full (300+ page) chapter books while playing for two soccer teams. She was pretty proud of all the food she was able to collect, can you tell?
We are going to snowball this tote of food now. There was not one student reading and collecting food, you have 80+ students with the support of their teachers and school community! Look how proud they are and all that they have accomplished!
After two weeks of reading, and a week of collecting, Mrs. Hutchins, who teaches ELA, brought a car full of food to our facility so that we can help distribute it to the local cupboards who are most in need of the donations. Here we are with just a small portion of the food collected. Don't mind the mess behind us, as we are still working hard to finish the warehouse before winter is officially here.
Have you or your organization thought about hosting your own food drive? We have the tools and resources on hand to help you begin it, share it on social media, and even collect it for you once your drive is over. You can take a look at some of our resources https://www.prfoodcenter.org/blank
We are committed to alleviate hunger and eliminate its causes here in Piscataquis County.