It was a busy two days for the Humboldt’s Farm Credit Canada.
Along with St. Dominic School, Humboldt Public School, and St. Augustine School, the FCC wrapped up their Drive Away Hunger campaign by collecting all the items from all three schools.
Dale Eggerman with FCC told all the students that FCC knew they would not be able to haul all the food to the Humboldt Food Bank with a just regular truck, so this year the tractor and trailer was donated by Hergott Farm equipment for the heavy duty lifting, to the delight of all the students.
Humboldt and District Food Bank Chariman, Kevin Reiter, presented to the students of St. Dominic and St. Augustine while Food Bank board member, Maria Leonard, presented to Humboldt Public School to give students an idea of the need for the food bank.
Ninety families come from all over the Humboldt area to use the food bank including, people coming from half way to Saskatoon and Lanigan, as well as the communities of Bruno, Lake Lenore, Annaheim, Spalding, Naicam, Watson, and St. Benedict.
Of those families, Reiter says that 120 of them are adults while 100 of them are children, just like them.
Reiter says it was so nice to see that the schools, students, and teachers are so involved in the community.
“For them together and help raise all this food, that’s tremendous. It’s a great feeling to know the community is behind the Humboldt and District Food Bank.”
The morning of Oct. 14 saw associates travel to St. Dominic School for a presentation from the grade 7 class as well as the whole school pitching in to take all the food away.
St. Dominic Vice-Principal, Chad Knaus, says it was unbelievable how much support the students gave.
“We know that it’s all going right here to Humboldt so I think that’s what makes it count. Kids are helping kids right here in their own hometown.”
The afternoon saw Humboldt Public School up next with the Student Leadership Council giving cheers and high fives to students as they walked into the gym to reward them for all their hardwork.
Tyler Skogen with the Council says that it feels really good to see how well his school did in collecting the food and helping out local people in need.
“To know that many people use it and that many people are going to be helped by that, that’s really great.”
Jayna Schuler with the Council encourages everyone to help by donating to local causes. It feels great, she says.
The afternoon of Oct. 17 saw St. Augustine as the last stop on the campaign trail.
St. Augustine teacher, Melissa Stockbrugger-Knaus, even sweetened the deal for the students by buying donuts for the class that brought in the most food, which was the grade five class.
It is an amazing feeling to see all the food piled on the St. Augustine stage, says Stockbrugger-Knaus.
“Every year when we do this food drive it just makes me feel so blessed and so thankful to help our community in this way.”
In total, the campaign raised $2102.70 and 7023 pounds with the three schools bringing in 4185 lb by themselves. The FCC also measures donations in meals; one dollar equals three meals and one pound of food equals one meal.
Between the three schools, 13,000 meals were donated through the generosity of the students.
Stockbrugger-Knaus applauds all the school for their joint efforts in raising so much food that will help so many people.
Across Canada, 850,000 people use the food bank monthly, 45 per cent of them children, says the Drive Away Hunger campaign statistics.
“Since 2004 the program has provided more than 27 million meals and this year, nationally, we hope to collect 4 million pounds of food,” says the campaign.
Adrianna Wormworth with Humboldt FCC says they were very lucky in the partnerships they had for the campaign and they all deserve a big thank you, including Humboldt Co-op Food Store General Manager Blair Molsberry and his staff, the great crew at MNP, and the enthusiastic staff and students at St Dominic, Humboldt Public and St Augustine School, says Wormworth.
“We couldn’t have made this year as successful without your help.”
photos by Becky Zimmer
Updated: Oct. 25, 2016
