Food Bank names Judge Memorial School of the Year

IC photo by Christine Young

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Judge Memorial Catholic High School seniors accept the 2010 Volunteer School of the Year Award from Jim Pugh of the Utah Food Bank for their many service hours.

SALT LAKE CITY - The Utah Food Bank named Judge Memorial Catholic High School the Volunteer School of the Year for their Open Hands Helping Hearts program April 21.

"Judge Memorial students raise the bar for how students in school should be," said Brandon Daniels, Food Bank volunteer coordinator. "They show honor and respect for the staff at the Utah Food Bank as well as others with whom they work. They do everything from learning how to run our pallet jacks to sorting. They have been great attributes. I can't tell you how much respect I have for them, because they have spent hours doing some not so fun tasks and they all do them willingly."

Rick Bartman, Judge Memorial principal, said he was humbled to be with the students as they accepted their service award, "which is an example of what Christ told us to do - go out and serve others," he said. "It doesn't really matter how many academic or athletic awards the kids get, this really is the basis of why we do what we do at Judge regardless of a student's faith tradition."

About 45 juniors and seniors from Judge Memorial volunteered at the Food Bank, said Amee Garcia, director of Christian Services. "The seniors do 45 service hours and the juniors do 30 hours of service throughout the school year between three service projects. What they do is based on their own preference. We don't want them to have to do something they are not going to enjoy. We want them to take ownership of the service project and use their gifts and talents in the community."

"We really like working with the Food Bank because they are so open and willing to have our kids come," said Amanda Lazinski, director of Campus Ministry. "We have a senior service retreat in the fall and a sophomore service retreat in the winter, and both times the Food Bank will take about 60 of our students for a couple of hours. Volunteers explain to them what the Food Bank does and then students perform service."

Judge senior Luke Bettin said he sorted food and it was a hard job, but it was rewarding. He also put the food on a pallet so it could be weighed and tracked for the records before it was distributed. "It makes me want to come back and do more service here on my own," said Bettin.

Judge senior Craig Domeier volunteered at the Food Bank over the summer doing a variety of tasks, to the point of becoming a special volunteer entrusted to count change from the coin box without supervision. "That meant a lot to me to have that level of trust," he said.

Linda Frank and Nicole Zinnanti, both Judge seniors, said they helped sort food and made up food boxes for Easter, which they also decorated. They enjoyed interacting with others who volunteered at the Food Bank. "Some were poor or middle class, and others needed community service hours," said Zinnanti.

"It was a fun opportunity even though some tasks were tedious," said Frank.

Other recipients included Life Long Learning Center as the Group of the Year; Carrier Transicold of Utah was the Corporate Partner of the Year and Brian Jensen was the Volunteer of the Year. The Road Home received special recognition because they partner with the Utah Food Bank by providing shelter for Food Bank clients. Michelle Flynn, The Road Home associate executive director of programs, said they serve more than 1,000 people each night.