Monte George, right, helps pastor Mario Lim with bags of food being collected for two families in need of Thanksgiving dinner on Monday at St. Vincent de Paul.
First-grader Douglas Worthington, IV, loads cans of food onto a cart at Mendenhall River Community School for the Southeast Alaska Food Bank
First-graders Willow Bradley, left, Skyler Maki and Cadence Campbell move a box full of canned goods down the Mendenhall River Community School hallway Monday at the end of a three-week-long food drive for the Southeast Alaska Food Bank. Students collected 1,644 cans of food. Lisa Currier's first-grade class kept track and counted the cans.
Story last updated at 11/24/2009 - 7:46 pm
Food donations to local charities have poured in the past few days.
Darren Adams, manager of the Southeast Alaska Food Bank, said a one-day food drive inside the Alaskan & Proud market downtown on Friday netted nearly 18,000 pounds of food - almost triple its goal.
"18,000 pounds was by far and away the largest single day collection I've seen in my four years at the Food bank," Adams said.
It was more than would fit in a full-sized school bus, and led the organization to ask for a second short bus. Bus contractor First Student donated the use of its buses along with its drivers' time.
Lisa Currier's first grade class at Mendenhall River Community School added another 1,644 cans of food to the food bank's tally on Monday, when the short bus came and loaded up the product of the class project for the last two or three weeks.
The school-wide food drive Currier's 21 kids ran was a lesson on both counting and the importance of giving.
"My whole goal was to try to get them to see what 1,000 looked like. ... They blew past that really fast," Currier said. "They were so excited. They were challenging each other to bring in more cans. ... They were so excited to drag that stuff down the hall."
In addition to volunteers and donors, Adams attributed the success to publicity on the radio and in the news.
The food bank provides food to about 35 agencies in Juneau and Southeast Alaska, such as the Glory Hole, the Salvation Army, Catholic Community Services, Juneau Youth Services and AWARE. It also opens its doors at 8:30 a.m. every Saturday at 10020 Crazy Horse Drive to give away mostly perishable food to needy individuals.
• Contact Jeremy Hsieh at 523-2258 or e-mail jeremy.hsieh@juneauempire.com.
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