LCA Collects 1,314 Bags Of Food For CCSIn just one day, Lakeland Christian Academy students collected approximately 1,314 bags of food for Combined Community Services.
"Our kids are very willing to help and are doing it for the right reasons," said Carmen Flores, LCA guidance counselor.
"You can't put a dollar value on this," said Peggi Lisenbee-Wright, CCS director of emergency assistance.
Monday, all LCA students, faculty and staff left brightly colored fliers and paper sacks with information about the food drive on door steps throughout the community. Wednesday, they went back to the neighborhoods where they left the bags and picked up the donations. The donations then were sorted by LCA for CCS.
Flores said LCA has a community service program because the school believes in educating the whole person. Going into the community and helping those in need is part of that.
"They have been so generous," Flores said of the donations.
One porch had about 20 Walmart grocery bags of food, which was estimated to be worth about $150.
This is LCA's third annual food drive for CCS. LCA has about 145 students in grades seven through 12, and all students participated in the food drive.
"CCS wants to thank Lakeland Christian Academy for supporting us through their annual food drive," said Christie Beldon, CCS emergency services coordinator. "The economy has made it especially hard on the families of Kosciusko County this year, and having the community come together in this food drive is nothing short of amazing!"
Beldon said, "We have seen an increase in the families coming in for assistance recently, and this food will help us to keep up with the need of those which we serve. We are very grateful for all of the local support we receive from the area schools, churches, organizations and individuals. All have blessed our organization and the families we assist."
"Before we collected $33,000 (worth of food), or something like that. This year, I'm sure we've exceeded that," said junior Jonathan Vida. "It's awesome to see what God has been doing for us."
Vida said all the students working together sorting the donations was a highlight. Everyone was in a good mood despite it being warm outside, and no one was getting frustrated.
"We're all being Christ-like and it's good to see," Vida said.
"I think it's really cool," said junior Jo Boren of the food drive. "We definitely got a lot of food. ... Almost everyone put a bag out."
Senior Bethany Prinsen said, "It's kind of cool to get out of school and help the community. Everyone has a good attitude about it so it's kind of fun."
She said she was definitely amazed at how much food they collected.
"This is a bunch more than we expected, more than last year. It's overwhelming," said Prinsen.
"It's going great," said senior Jacob Cole as he was helping put food away. "We got a really good turnout for what we handed out. Almost every house had a bag."
Asked why he thought so many people gave so much, Cole said, "It was the generosity of the person's heart. That's what it came down to."
