The holiday season is a time for joy, gratitude, and giving back to the community. In the spirit of spreading cheer, the Charleston Day 5th-grade students organized a heartwarming canned food drive that not only filled the shelves for Lowcountry Food Bank but also taught valuable lessons about compassion and generosity.

The most immediate and direct impact of food drives is addressing hunger. By collecting non-perishable food items, these drives provide essential sustenance to individuals and families who may be facing food insecurity. When students participate in the holiday food drive, it raises awareness about food needs in our area.

The Food Drive Tradition

Each grade level from third to eighth grade at CDS sponsors one community service project throughout the year. The fifth grade historically organizes the canned food drive. The drive provides an opportunity for the 5th-grade class to work together, emphasizing the power of collaboration. As a result, students, along with the help of the school’s community service coordinator, Mr. Wascom, worked to organize collection bins, create promotional materials, and spread awareness about the initiative.

Planning a Food Drive

The holidays are a great time to organize a school-wide food drive, and it is a project that upper elementary and middle school students can lead.

• First, locate an organization in the area that will be accepting food donations. For larger food drives, you may need to register with the organization.
• Next, set the date for your food collection window and determine a food delivery time with the organization that will be taking the food donations.
• Then, promote the food drive within your community. In our case, our students made signs, sent reminders in our parent communications and social media, and stood in carpool line each morning collecting donations.

If families would like to continue to collect food over the holidays, food banks typically prefer healthy non-perishable food items. According to the Lowcountry Food Bank, the most needed food items are tuna and canned meats, low sugar cereals, peanut butter, low-sodium canned soups, whole grain rice and pasta, and canned fruits and vegetables. 5th graders included these suggestions in their announcements to the school prior to the food drive kick-off.

In all, the Charleston Day community donated 614 pounds of food. Great job, families!