Our Lady Of Lourdes students surpass food drive goal

Our Lady of Lourdes School

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Courtesy of Our Lady of Lourdes School

SALT LAKE CITY — Students at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School practiced stewardship for a week by holding their second annual food and coat drive Nov. 12-16. This year’s goal for the pre-kindergarten through 8th-grade families was to contribute 1,000 items of food.

The students surpassed this goal, bringing in over 1,500 items of food and more than 100 coats. Every morning in the gym, where students gather before school, they saw how their combined donated food items increased the food item count. Home & School Association parent volunteers counted the donated food items and recorded the daily count on a poster board thermometer displayed in the gym. Before dismissing the students, the principal shared the day’s count with the students and thanked them for their generosity. The end-of-day announcements shared the daily food donation count and the progress of meeting the Food Drive goal throughout the school.

"Our students did a great job and families were so generous," said Principal Tina Bergquist. "The food will help over 100 families the pantry serves as well as our local community. A few students went so far as to brave the cold and deep snow that fell the weekend of Nov. 9 to collect food. We are very happy with the outcome and so proud of our students."

As designated as the primary charity for the Diocese of Salt Lake City during the Year of Faith, Catholic Community Services (CCS) received the donated coats, which will help over 300 homeless people that come through CCS every day.

Food from the drive benefitted the Ladies of Charity Center of Hope food pantry.

"Our food pantry shelves were nearly empty," said Jackie Hanover, President of the Salt Lake Chapter of the Ladies of Charity. "This is amazing and we are so thankful to the students."