MONKTON — The fifth- and sixth-grade Student Council at Monkton Central School announces the results of their very successful Holiday Food Drive. The school community collected 1,318 non-perishable food items in just six school days.
The Student Council announced the food drive at the school’s monthly All School Meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 8. The drive ran from Wednesday, Dec. 9, through Wednesday, Dec. 16. Under the guidance of faculty advisers Stephanie Murray, Kate La Riviere Gagner, and Carolyn Tatlock, the nine Student Council members, three students each from the three fifth/sixth-grade homerooms, managed inventory collected by the nine kindergarten, first/second-, third/fourth-, and fifth/sixth-grade homerooms.
Each morning of the drive, a Student Council member assigned to a homeroom used a wheelbarrow to collect the items brought in by students in that class. The 1,318 total items collected is an average of almost nine items per student.
The staff advisers of the Student Council noted the ripple effect that the event had across the school and broader communities this week. They said parents, students and teachers were all equally invested in making this a significant community service event in line with the schoolwide theme “MCS CARES.” Friendly competitions between classes kept the stakes high but the goal clear and the Student Council was surprised by what the school could achieve working together, even when there was no prize like an ice cream party to motivate students. Said sixth-grader Elena Bronson, “The ‘prize’ was feeling good about giving.”
A delivery was made at the midpoint of the drive to the Hinesburg Community Resource Center. Deliveries to the Vergennes Community Food Shelf and the Have a Heart Food Shelf in Bristol, which benefits Bristol, Lincoln, Monkton, New Haven and Starksboro, are scheduled for the coming days.