Carting up food donations

Saturday morning came early for a group of middle school students who put aside video games and trips to the mall to gather donations for area food banks.

“It’s fun. You can get involved and help the community,” said Tyler Baumer, a seventh-grader from Greenacres Middle School who volunteered for a second year.

Students from Central Valley School District’s middle schools fanned out to Albertsons, Safeway and Tidyman’s grocery stores in the Valley to gather food to help the less fortunate.

Armed with fliers, they hoped to fill five school buses and deliver the goods to Spokane Valley Food Bank.

Teachers and parent volunteers drank hot tea while standing in the chilly shade, collecting and passing bags to the student sorters.

Last year, volunteers amassed 55,077 pounds of food and more than a few turkeys. The annual drive is held the weekend before Thanksgiving, in conjunction with food drives at participating schools.

“There’s just a huge need,” said Leslie Heffernan, a special education teacher and volunteer. She expected about 30 kids and parents will help throughout the day.

Greenacres’ students and staff also held a schoolwide food drive earlier this month and raised a mountain of food. “The goal was to fill the principal’s office and then transfer it by bus,” Heffernan said.

Baumer, who planned to spend his entire day at Tidyman’s at Sprague and McDonald, understands some of the circumstances leading to poverty and wishes the area had better-paying jobs and fewer layoffs.

“If you get laid off, you can’t really support your family and you can’t buy stuff,” Baumer said, as he sorted food inside the bus.

Chris Smith, a math and science teacher at Greenacres and three-year volunteer, said the students get a good response from shoppers.

“I think it’s a great program. People are very supportive and they are very generous,” Smith said.

The school buses of donations will come in handy at Spokane Valley Food Bank, which is one of several area agencies that are putting together food baskets for hundreds of needy families and finding their canned goods and turkey stores wanting.

Earlier this week, representatives of the Valley Food Bank, Second Harvest and Coeur d’Alene’s Community Action Partnership food banks worried because they need to gather anywhere from hundreds to thousands of turkeys to fill orders for people needing Thanksgiving dinners.

For Charlie Jefferson, an eighth-grader, the goal is to put as big of a dent in community need as possible.

“I just hope that we fill more of the bus than we did last year.”