Lakeland Students Collect Food For CCS
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By David [email protected]
LCA’s eighth annual CCS food drive is Monday through Wednesday.
“Last year we got over 13,000 pounds. Each year we want to get more than the year before,” said sophomore Brady Gross, who is participating for his second year.
Senior Connor Blum is involved in the food drive for his fifth year. “This year we want to see us beat last year’s amount. We have two new neighborhoods from last year (to collect from) so that should help,” he said.
Fourth-year participant and sophomore Jeffrey Jones said his goal was “to get more food than we did last year, to be a better help for the community.”
This is freshman Cassadi Colbert’s first year at LCA and her first year taking part in the food drive. She guessed they will take in over 15,000 pounds this year because the fliers on the grocery bags being handed out to the community states LCA raised over 13,000 last year and “people will want to help get past that goal.”
On Monday, all LCA students, faculty and staff will leave paper grocery bags with bright pink information fliers about the food drive on door steps throughout the community. The students will return to those homes Wednesday to collect the non-perishable food items, according to information provided by LCA Director of Development Scott Wiley.
Residents may place food items in boxes or bags and leave them at the end of their driveway or in a visible place. The food should be left out by 8 a.m. Wednesday, rain or shine. If a home is missed, call 574-267-7265 after 2 p.m. and someone will come out and pick up the donation. CCS coat donations also may be placed with food donations and all of it will be picked up and delivered.
After all the food is collected, it will be sorted on the CCS lawn, stocked in the client-choice food pantry and the excess carried to CCS’s storage area.
Suggested non-perishable food items include peanut butter, jelly, macaroni & cheese, canned tuna in water, canned chicken in water, oatmeal, cereal, spaghetti sauce, noodles, ramen noodles, baking mixes, healthy foods and gluten-free products.
Besides getting to skip class for the food drive, Gross said she enjoys it because “we do it with our Unleashing the Power of the Son groups. You get to come closer to your UPS group as you do it.”
“It just shows how the power of God can use us to help with others’ needs,” Blum said.
Jones said, “I think it’s just a cool way to spread God’s word and show God’s kindness by collecting food for people.”
He said one year a person left a $200 donation in one of the grocery bags “and that was really a surprise. It was really cool.”
“I think it’s a really good opportunity to show the community that while we’re at school, we’re not always focused on school. We’re thinking of the needs of others,” Colbert said. “It also gives us the opportunity to be involved and be aware of the needs of others.”
Freshmen Luke Miller is in his first year at LCA, having gone to Edgewood Middle School previously. While he’s brought food in to school before for a food drive, he said it was nothing like what LCA does.
“I think it’s really cool that everyone participates in it for a good cause,” he said.
In the information provided by Wiley, CCS Director of Client Assistance Peggi Lisenbee Wright is quoted as saying, “Hunger and lack of access to nutritional food is growing at an alarming rate across our country. CCS’s emergency assistance program has been struggling to meet the ever-growing need for food. The students and staff from LCA display such Christ-like attitudes through their joy in giving and hard work in serving. They not only collect the food, but deliver, sort and stack the overflow in storage. The LCA food drive has become an annual event that not only supplies CCS with a full pantry, but also uplifts and encourages our staff and volunteers through LCA’s joy and compassion.”
Bill Leslie, CCS’s food bank coordinator, said, “We would love to have more healthy and gluten-free foods. Now that we are a client-choice pantry, we seem to go through food more quickly. We are having more and more people come in. We had 60 families come in for food on just one day last week. This food drive is an answer to prayer because our shelves are kind of bare right now.”
LCA is at 1093 S. 250 E., Winona Lake, and its website is at www.lcacougars.com. CCS is 1195 Mariners Drive, Warsaw, and its website is at www.combinedcommunityservices.org.[[In-content Ad]]
LCA’s eighth annual CCS food drive is Monday through Wednesday.
“Last year we got over 13,000 pounds. Each year we want to get more than the year before,” said sophomore Brady Gross, who is participating for his second year.
Senior Connor Blum is involved in the food drive for his fifth year. “This year we want to see us beat last year’s amount. We have two new neighborhoods from last year (to collect from) so that should help,” he said.
Fourth-year participant and sophomore Jeffrey Jones said his goal was “to get more food than we did last year, to be a better help for the community.”
This is freshman Cassadi Colbert’s first year at LCA and her first year taking part in the food drive. She guessed they will take in over 15,000 pounds this year because the fliers on the grocery bags being handed out to the community states LCA raised over 13,000 last year and “people will want to help get past that goal.”
On Monday, all LCA students, faculty and staff will leave paper grocery bags with bright pink information fliers about the food drive on door steps throughout the community. The students will return to those homes Wednesday to collect the non-perishable food items, according to information provided by LCA Director of Development Scott Wiley.
Residents may place food items in boxes or bags and leave them at the end of their driveway or in a visible place. The food should be left out by 8 a.m. Wednesday, rain or shine. If a home is missed, call 574-267-7265 after 2 p.m. and someone will come out and pick up the donation. CCS coat donations also may be placed with food donations and all of it will be picked up and delivered.
After all the food is collected, it will be sorted on the CCS lawn, stocked in the client-choice food pantry and the excess carried to CCS’s storage area.
Suggested non-perishable food items include peanut butter, jelly, macaroni & cheese, canned tuna in water, canned chicken in water, oatmeal, cereal, spaghetti sauce, noodles, ramen noodles, baking mixes, healthy foods and gluten-free products.
Besides getting to skip class for the food drive, Gross said she enjoys it because “we do it with our Unleashing the Power of the Son groups. You get to come closer to your UPS group as you do it.”
“It just shows how the power of God can use us to help with others’ needs,” Blum said.
Jones said, “I think it’s just a cool way to spread God’s word and show God’s kindness by collecting food for people.”
He said one year a person left a $200 donation in one of the grocery bags “and that was really a surprise. It was really cool.”
“I think it’s a really good opportunity to show the community that while we’re at school, we’re not always focused on school. We’re thinking of the needs of others,” Colbert said. “It also gives us the opportunity to be involved and be aware of the needs of others.”
Freshmen Luke Miller is in his first year at LCA, having gone to Edgewood Middle School previously. While he’s brought food in to school before for a food drive, he said it was nothing like what LCA does.
“I think it’s really cool that everyone participates in it for a good cause,” he said.
In the information provided by Wiley, CCS Director of Client Assistance Peggi Lisenbee Wright is quoted as saying, “Hunger and lack of access to nutritional food is growing at an alarming rate across our country. CCS’s emergency assistance program has been struggling to meet the ever-growing need for food. The students and staff from LCA display such Christ-like attitudes through their joy in giving and hard work in serving. They not only collect the food, but deliver, sort and stack the overflow in storage. The LCA food drive has become an annual event that not only supplies CCS with a full pantry, but also uplifts and encourages our staff and volunteers through LCA’s joy and compassion.”
Bill Leslie, CCS’s food bank coordinator, said, “We would love to have more healthy and gluten-free foods. Now that we are a client-choice pantry, we seem to go through food more quickly. We are having more and more people come in. We had 60 families come in for food on just one day last week. This food drive is an answer to prayer because our shelves are kind of bare right now.”
LCA is at 1093 S. 250 E., Winona Lake, and its website is at www.lcacougars.com. CCS is 1195 Mariners Drive, Warsaw, and its website is at www.combinedcommunityservices.org.[[In-content Ad]]
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