Lamp Post

Annual can food drive: Holy Family collects to give back to poor

Friday, December 11, 2009 By JORDAN KUDRNA

“There is something very profound about seeing a need and filling it, especially one like feeding the hungry,” said junior Mission Club member Elizabeth Franz, who headed the canned food drive. The Mission Club led the annual Holy Family canned food drive from Nov. 4 to Nov. 25. The school as a whole had a goal of collecting 5,000 cans. In order to reach that goal, each student needed to bring in about 10 cans. This year, however, the school did not reach its goal. Holy Family collected 3,128 cans, being 1,872 cans short of 5,000. Some of the student body, including sophomore Ashley Burk, thought the goal was too large. “The school was also trying to reach the Tree and Wreath Fundraiser goal while collecting cans, and I think when we didn’t get that goal, some of us were discouraged,” she said. On the other hand, others thought the goal was the right amount of cans. Junior Mission Club member Bryant Tran said, “I don’t think [the goal] was too high because last year some classes brought in more than 1,000 cans; we had five teams this year.” The classes and staff competed to see who brought in the most cans. This year the winning class was the freshmen with 1,284 cans. Juniors came in second with 1,059 cans, and seniors followed with 330 cans. In fourth was the faculty with 235 cans. The sophomores received last place with 220 cans. The proceeds of the canned food drive were originally supposed to go to five different food banks around Holy Family. These included Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Northglenn, FISH food bank in Broomfield, St. John’s Catholic Church in Longmont, COMPA food bank and the Samaritan House. However, because the school did not reach the goal, cans only went to three of the food banks, which were Immaculate Heart of Mary, FISH and St. John’s. The remaining two did not get any. “I was disappointed to leave two food banks without any help, but when we delivered the cans to FISH, the people there were so grateful,” said Franz. “The canned food drive was a success even though we didn’t reach our goal because we put a lot of thought into it, and we were still able to give to three different places,” Tran said. During the food drive, rumors were going around that the freshmen were hoarding cans. These rumors turned out to be true, but not just for the freshmen. The sophomores and juniors also had some tricks up their sleeves. Science teacher Deborah McKenzie let the freshmen hoard in her room, theology teacher and Mission Club moderator Joshua Havey helped the sophomores and Spanish teacher Susan Powers helped the juniors in the last two weeks of the fundraiser. “One of the classes always saves a bunch of cans and turns them in on the last day of the canned food drive. It has become a tradition for all the fundraisers,” said Burk. In all, the canned food drive helped Holy Family give to the community and those less fortunate. Because of this, many will have full stomachs this season. Tran said, “This really helps us because I think it gets new people involved in small ways and later, they can be involved in a bigger way.” Franz agrees. She said, “For me, it meant a lot to see the people at the food bank who were picking up their Thanksgiving meals. It is good to know that they have places to go when they need food, and it is even better to know that Holy Family was able to be a part of that.”