North Lake Tahoe Bonanza: Lake Tahoe School students recently collected nearly one ton of food for the local hunger relief agency, Project MANA.
"The student council ran the whole thing," said Social Studies Teacher Charlie White, who moderates the student council at the school with Holly Williamson, another teacher.
For eight days, pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade students brought in food to donate. They ended up with approximately 2,400 items, which weighed 1,780 pounds.
"We had over half of our middle schoolers use their own allowance money to bring canned food," White said. "It was great to see them giving their own money and giving of themselves."
Staff members at Project MANA were impressed with the giving spirit of the students at Lake Tahoe School.
"I didn't realize exactly how small Lake Tahoe school was, but they brought us a huge amount of food," said Amanda O'Keefe, Project MANA hunger prevention coordinator. "I remember one class of about 22 kids brought in literally hundreds and hundreds of cans."
Not only did the students give generously, they took it a step further. The student council actually went to Project MANA to sort and weigh the food and help pack bags for the organization's Thursday distributions in Incline Village.
"The teachers contacted me and said they wanted the kids to come and see where the food was going and get a better understanding of who needs the food in community," O'Keefe said. "They were really diligent, they worked really really hard and asked lots of questions - they were very engaged."
The students' positive attitude gave O'Keefe, who is an AmeriCorps member, hope that the next generation will continue to help others.
"Experiences like this might make them more apt to become involved and give back to the community in the future," O'Keefe said.
She said she hopes the experience will give the kids a new perspective on the needs of the community and how they can really make a difference.
"To be able to hand over what they spent their money on to people who really need it for survival has a greater effect than just collecting cans in the classroom," White said.
Lucy Redoglia
Bonanza Staff Writer