When the Community Emergency Assistance Program (CEAP) food shelf reached out to Oak View Elementary School last month for help gathering donations, the school community jumped into action to answer the call. Fifth grade students in Lisa Engebretson and Paola Morantes-Villalobos’ classrooms organized a food and supply drive in December, collecting 687 pounds of food and supplies.
Morantes-Villalobos said the drive tied in with the classrooms’ December focus on civic skills in social studies.
“The kids were really excited to support CEAP,” Morantes-Villalobos said. “The kids did a great job in creating promotional videos for the drive and going around the school with our classroom wagon to collect all of the donations.”
The classes initially made a goal of collecting 300 pounds of food and supplies, so their final tally of nearly 700 pounds far exceeded expectations and boosted student excitement.
“The students were really happy to see themselves as school leaders who truly made a difference in our local community,” she said. “They understand that many families are facing food insecurity, and they wanted to make sure that the families did not face that particular problem during the holidays.”