South Kent School Feeds the Need – Thank you!
On the recommendation of fifth former Junkun Zhang, a day student and resident of Kent, who, while volunteering at the Kent Food Bank last summer, recognized that there are a number of people in this town who need the help provided through the food bank, the South Kent School community–students, faculty, staff, and families–rallied together this past weekend in an anti-hunger campaign called South Kent Feeds the Need, with the intent of collecting food and cash donations for the Kent Food Bank.
We would like to report a specific count now on how much food was collected, BUT WE CAN’T. The mountain of canned food, pasta, pasta sauces, peanut butter, jelly, cookies, detergent, hygiene products, crackers, and so on in our dining hall–which will be delivered to the Kent Food Bank on Tuesday–is just too big to count. In addition, school families and town residents directly donated over $700 to the campaign, with more online donations coming in to the Kent Community Fund through the campaign.
“At South Kent, we have always believed that one of the best ways of building up this school community involves reaching out, connecting to, and serving the wider community–and, indeed, that our greatest joys come in making a difference in the lives of others,” said Father Steve Klots, who helped organize the activities.
To make this campaign happen, sports team captains collected cash donations from their teammates–which were then used to buy groceries on Thursday. On Friday, students manned food collection tables at the Brown Gymnasium during the basketball games and a soccer futsal tournament. In the Stockdale Arena, hockey players likewise collected donations from fans at the South Kent games on Friday and Saturday, and on Saturday morning, three shifts of students collected food and cash donations outside the IGA (even in the midst of a snow squall).
As part of South Kent Feeds the Need, on Sunday ten students and a faculty family (the Garcias) also traveled with Father Klots to New Haven to take part in Chapel on the Green, a service and feeding program sponsored by Trinity Church on the Green for those in need in that city. After the service, the students distributed bagged lunches that the soccer team had prepared on Saturday morning.
We would like to thank all who took part in this event–students, faculty, staff, our school families, and those donated at the IGA–for making a difference in the lives of others.