Though Lakeland Christian Academy’s food drive for Combined Community Services helps the less fortunate, the students also get a lot out of the experience. Seniors Cameron Hathaway and Brad Bibler and sophomore Cale Hays helped load the boxes and bags of food into the truck at LCA to be transported to CCS. “It brings everyone closer together and helps the community a lot,” said Hathaway. “I feel good about what we do in helping the community,” Hays added. Bibler said he was impressed with the amount of groceries the community donated for the food drive this year. “We got a lot more this year than last year. We also put out more (bags) this year than last year,” he stated. Peggi Lisenbee-Wright, CCS director of client services, said the school collected more than 11,000 pounds of food. In 2012, she said the food drive collected a little more than 10,600 pounds. “I love the generosity of people and them recognizing the need of others around them,” Victoria Flores, junior, stated. Having participated every year since seventh grade, Flores said, “I think it continues to grow every year. It gets easier because we know what we’re doing ... it’s more fun every year, too.” The fifth annual communitywide food drive started Monday when all LCA students, faculty and staff left brightly colored fliers and paper sacks at homes across various neighborhoods. The fliers explained the purpose of the sacks. On Wednesday, the students returned to those same homes to collect the non-perishable food items residents donated. As the food was dropped off at LCA, students sorted it, boxed or bagged it and loaded it onto a truck. The truck then hauled the packages to CCS, where more students weighed, sorted and shelved the donations. Sophomore Laura Pitts said in her four years of participating in the food drive, she’s seen more of the whole community than she usually does. “And it’s great we can make an impact by doing this,” she continued. “I hope (in the future) we can get more bags sent out to more neighborhoods than what we’ve been doing.” “I think it’s a real tangible way to show Christ’s love to the community,” sophomore Drew Nieveen said. “It can give people options of serving the community they may not otherwise think of.” He said it was also a good way for LCA students to bond. Lisenbee-Wright and CCS Executive Director Steve Possell were happy with the outcome of the food drive. “The kids collected an enormous amount of food, especially with the weather the way it is,” Lisenbee-Wright stated. “This will probably be our biggest fundraiser of the year and it surpasses all the rest.” She also said she appreciated the willingness of the community to donate to CCS. With CCS’s new “client choice” way of doing things, Possell said it’s a good time for LCA to have the food drive. The food pantry is depleted quicker than before with CCS clients being able to choose their own food, he said. Next to the Food-A-Thon in November, LCA’s food drive is the biggest collection time of the year for CCS, he said. When CCS requests a grant, donors are always looking at how organizations like CCS are helping people in healthy ways, Possell noted. CCS now offers “healthy choices,” and the LCA flyer requested healthy donations. “People are really thinking about the food they give us,” he said. The one-year anniversary of CCS’s move from Prairie Street to Mariner Drive is approaching. With the new building, there’s now actually room to put all the donations the LCA students collected, Possell said. In previous years, Lisenbee-Wright recounted, some of the tall boys would have to bend over to put boxes of food in the attic. The new location has more room and the LCA students who have been helping out for five years are grateful they no longer have to deal with the attic space. “It seems a lot more organized,” senior Billy Pitts said of the new location. “It’s easier for us to get everything in and not have to put it in an attic to divide it up and then have to take it down. It’s a lot more convenient.” In his fifth and final year of participating in the food drive, Pitts concluded, “I think that it’s really good the community still gives us stuff. This year, compared to last, I think it may be less, but it’s still incredible people keep giving.”
