Thousands of area students, hoping to make sure San Benito
County residents are better fed, are collecting food for the annual
Harvest Food Drive.
Hollister – Thousands of area students, hoping to make sure San Benito County residents are better fed, are collecting food for the annual Harvest Food Drive.
San Benito Harvest Food Drive Co-Chairperson Tracie Cone, former publisher of The Pinnacle, hopes local students and community members can come together to collect 60,000 pounds of food before Thanksgiving.
“This is a community where people know each other and care for each other,” she said. “When it comes down to it, people still care about their neighbors and they will come through.”
San Benito County schools will be competing against each other to collect the most food. The top school will win a new computer and $500 in merchandise from Santa Cruz Surf Shop.
Cone is concerned that many county residents have already donated a large portion of their resources to victims of recent disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, but remained confident that the community would come through to help out local families.
The food will be collected by local schools and businesses and distributed to families and individuals through Second Harvest Food Bank’s network agencies like the Community Pantry, Fishes and Loaves, Jóvenes de Antaño, New Beginnings, the Salvation Army and St. Vincent De Paul.
Although Second Harvest Food Bank serves San Benito and Santa Cruz counties, “every penny and ounce of food donated will stay here in San Benito County,” Cone said.
Students at Marguerite Maze Middle School are hoping to collect more canned food items this year than ever before, Principal Bernice Smith said Monday. There’s a “friendly competition” between individual classes, Smith said.
Maze students just finished collecting school supplies for Hurricane Katrina victims, but Smith believes they will be able to fill 10 barrels with about 5,000 pounds of food by the end of the week.
“We collect a huge amount of food and it’s all for a good cause,” she said. “(Students) really understand what is going on and want to help.”
San Benito High, which collected the most food last year, will attempt to fill 40 barrels with food this year, according to Student Activities Director and teacher Juan Robledo.
