Kindness Contest Two Grade Schools Compete To Collect Most Food For Charity

Brentwood Elementary School issued a challenge. Meadow Ridge Elementary School met it.

The winners are Spokane’s needy.

Students at these two Mead District schools collected more than 15,000 food items between Dec. 8 and 17 for two local food banks.

Their generous outpourings were distributed last week. Brentwood students turned in 11,775 food items to City Gate in downtown Spokane.

Students at Meadow Ridge donated 3,604 items to the Mead Food Outlet.

“It was just amazing,” said Brentwood principal Dave Stenersen, whose school’s main entrance was lined with food piled more than halfway past a 6-foot Christmas tree.

“Our sixth-graders alone brought in more than 6,000 cans of food. And we only have 90 sixth graders in the building,” he said.

For the record, a total of 15,379 food items were donated between the two schools. With combined enrollments of 1,117 students, nearly 14 items of food were donated per student.

Brentwood students won the competition, but the faculty and staff at Meadow Ridge beat Brentwood’s with 837 food items to Brentwood’s 499.

“We had to win that one,” said first-year Meadow Ridge principal Kelly Shea.

Stenersen was Meadow Ridge’s interim principal for seven months last year. The last thing faculty and staff wanted him to have was total bragging rights for an entire year.

Stenersen wasn’t discouraged. “I’ve got a year to work on my staff,” he joked.

The competition was fast and furious.

Two of Brentwood’s three sixth-grade teachers, Gary Berven and Steve Miller, both athletic coaches, took the food drive to another level.

They challenged their students to bring in more food than the rest of their mates.

“I felt like Knute Rockne sometimes,” Miller said referring to the legendary college football coach. “But the number one lesson in all this, the thing we wanted to leave them with the most was, ‘Give from the heart; don’t give to win.”’ When Miller was a boy, his father ran a store in Hillyard. Many times he was at that store with his father giving away food to the needy.

“I told these guys what my dad told me, ‘Never turn away a hungry man,”’ he said.

Brentwood students Anthony Fountaine and Anthony Kongchunji canvassed their neighborhoods together in search of items.

“We had our parents take us to Albertson’s, and we went door-todoor to get food for the poor,” said Fountaine, a fifth grader.”

Added Kongchunji: “It was fun collecting cans. Together we collected 70 cans of food.”

Stenersen believes that what made this food drive so different was the fact that a volunteer from City Gate came to the school to talk to the kids.

Just after Thanksgiving, while pouring through an endless stack of mail on his desk, Stenersen came across a letter from City Gate located at 114 S. Madison.

“Help is needed in the inner-city of Spokane” cried the the letter. “Federal food stamp programs have been reduced. Local food bank supplies are VERY LOW. Demand is VERY HIGH.”

So Stenersen talked to Jim Denniston, a City Gate representative, and had him come and speak to 27 student government leaders in the fourth through sixth grades.

“They were just silent,” Stenersen said. “He talked about people who have hard times, no food, limited conditions, three, four, five people having to share rooms in homes with no heat, homeless people living under the Maple Street bridge.

“When he finished, one boy raised his hand and asked, ‘Do they have small bathrooms?”’ Stenersen said. “That’s when I knew they were listening. That’s when I saw that they wanted to make a difference.”

From there, Stenersen called Shea and asked him if his school wanted to participate in a food drive. The two men took three students each to a local Arby’s for lunch and hammered out a full-page of competition rules.

Part of the official agreement stated, “We, The Student Government Representatives from Meadow Ridge and Brentwood agree to the following: Our purpose is to collect as much food as possible for the needy, raise school spirit at both schools and strengthen ties between our schools.”

It went on to say: “Daily communication will be honest and clear - no sandbagging.”

Berven did admit that he was somewhat surprised at the way students responded.

“A lot of kids here don’t want for much,” he said. “Sometimes you wonder if they understand that there are people who aren’t as fortunate they are.

“But I guess they answered my question,” he said.