In recent weeks students at Gordon F. Kells High School have been playing their role in a food drive that will be aiding many families in southeast Saskatchewan this Christmas.
The drive is a build up to the school's mosaic meal event that will be held on Friday, Dec. 20 where food from different cultures such as Mexican, Italian and Chinese will be featured. The class that contributes the most non-perishable food items will benefit by eating first at the dinner. Teacher at the school and organizer of the drive Trent Johnson has hailed the students for their effort and said the drive got off to a great start as there were 2,000 items in the first week.
"It goes to about 40 different families across southeast Saskatchewan and that's just at Christmas time and from what I understand there's something like about 65 every month who receive it as well. So this is just one small part of those food hampers that go out," he said.
This is the school's 10th year in having the mosaic meal and Johnson explained that in the last two weeks students have brought in about 2,500 items so far.
"Our school goal is 5,000 ... So if we reach our goal, I told the students I'd go blonde and give them a little bit more incentive," Johnson said.
He also indicated that the students have been doing very well and Friday, Dec. 13 served as a triple day where items brought in counted as three food items. He explained that the Carlyle United Church also plays a role as they organize and sort all the food items that will go toward the food banks in the area. Johnson has directed the drive since he started teaching at GFK more than 10 years ago and said he takes the initiative to push the students and assign responsibilities to the teachers.
"It's just something I take a lot of pride in and kind of look after it and at the same time it's a nice little competition the kids have," he said.
"It's one of those things as a teacher you don't realize how good we have it and it's my own little way to give back to people who may be a little bit less fortunate than myself and other community members."
Johnson said the drive is an opportunity to do something for the community and recalls 2012 as having their highest numbers.
"We were just over 3,000 and so this year I kind of pushed a little bit and we're going to reach that goal for sure," he said.
"We're going to break our record at the school but at the same time, I wanted to kind of put a little high number in"
