Gonzaga Prep ‘sets Spokane on fire’ with annual holiday food drive, raising over 150,000 pounds for the holidays

Though little class time is scheduled at Gonzaga Prep the day before Thanksgiving, Wednesday morning is abuzz with energy from the zealous chaos in the school’s halls and the active parking lot.

It’s the final day in the school’s annual food drive, or “the best day of the year,” according to some. Over the past few weeks, the 800 students ferociously gathered nonperishable food items, more than 158,000 pounds, that line their classrooms and hallways leading up to Wednesday. Then, they pack trucks bound for local food banks and cars heading to families around Spokane. More than 2,200 people receive boxes of pantry staples delivered to their doors from G-Prep students.

“We work together to really, like, put a Band-Aid on the situation for the holiday season so families can enjoy a holiday like how we enjoy our holidays pretty much: free of worrying what the next bill is going to be if we have to pay for food,” said Junior Kelton Doolittle, who is on G-Prep’s food drive committee.

Kids, staff and alumni of the school grinned as they rushed through the hallways carrying boxes of peanut butter and cans of vegetables to trucks in the school’s parking lot. They push carts filled to the brim with sacks of potatoes, baby food and sometimes their own peers, giddy in their hurry.

“It builds friendship so much, because you’re food driving with everyone; it brings everyone together under one goal, which is really meaningful,” Doolittle said.

This year, they raised the most pounds in their 60-plus year history of the food drive – over 20,000 pounds more than last year’s numbers. Averaged out, each kid collected 195 pounds.

For weeks preceding Thanksgiving, students feverishly food-raised through multiple avenues, tabling outside grocery stores, going door-to-door, calling family and friends and rallying other schools like St. Aloysius Gonzaga Catholic School.

“It’s an incredible way to get the greater Spokane community involved,” said Junior Ari Everitt, also on the food drive committee. “With the St. Al’s, Yoke’s, door-to-door, it might be culminating at Prep, but it’s a greater Spokane effort.”

Students also collect cash donations that they use to buy food. Everitt and Doolittle said this year they put a personal emphasis on “quality over quantity” when selecting food, considering what they would crave and reach for in their own pantries.

“Name-brand Lucky Charms – that’s going to make their week,” Everitt said.

“With the leprechaun and the rainbow on the box, it goes so much further,” Doolittle added.

After soliciting donations through every avenue possible and packing the vehicles that fill their parking lot, students deliver food packages to individual families around town and to housing complexes run by charities with which they coordinate.

Through these deliveries, students are met face-to-face with food insecurity that proliferates in their community.

Teacher and coach Taryn League recalls her own experiences delivering food as a student at G-Prep and the lessons she still considers more than 25 years later.

“I remember I was with my students, and I remember them going, ‘Wow, this exists in Spokane; it’s not just somewhere else. This is a house I drive by every day,’ ” League said.

They not only learn poverty exists, but that they can do something about it. The food lasts for weeks for each family, ideally through the holiday season, serving as a “Band-Aid” by alleviating food concerns for that time.

Everitt last year delivered a vanload of bags to a family of seven with her peers, and they were met with elation.

“From, like, the mom to, like, the littlest daughter, I remember she was in, like, the princess costume and she was so excited to just see us there,” Everitt recalled. “Just the way their faces lit up when we came and we saw them, was just such an emotional experience. This is why we do this, like, it is for those people.”

Though fulfilling the religious mission of the Jesuit school and serving their community is motivation enough for many, the possibility of nationwide acclaim adds an extra cherry on top. The Great Ignatian Challenge is a national food drive competition between around two dozen Jesuit schools.

They won in 2022 with more than 127,000 pounds and have since been pushing to reclaim the honor. Winners get bragging rights, but also a monetary prize that G-Prep uses to fund its scholarship program for students seeking to attend the private school.

After the hectic yet joyous day concludes, students are instilled lessons on being thankful for what they have, as well as the importance of service for others less fortunate than themselves. Through the schoolwide fanfare, students get their “foot in the door for service,” Everitt said.

“Our goal, like Saint Ignatius said, is go forth and set the world on fire,” Doolittle said. “I’d say we’re trying, and I’d say we’re probably setting Spokane on fire, in a Jesuit sense.”