TULSA, Okla. — A friendly competition between grades at Riverfield Country Day School blossomed into a big gift for students at Eugene Field Elementary in Tulsa.
"We have over ten thousand individual items that we donated to Eugene Field this year, " said Riverfield Senior Holden Williams.
Riverfield students competed to see which class could collect the most non-perishable, kid-friendly food to donate to the food pantry at Eugene Field.
"We know how important this was for them, and over the course of about two weeks, more food kept coming, and more food keeps coming," said Riverfield's Lily Clark.
There was so much food it filled up a school bus and two trucks. It arrived just in time to stock the nearly empty shelves of Eugene Field's school food pantry.
Struggling families of students at the school can get shelf-stable foods here throughout the school year. It's especially appreciated during long breaks when the budgets might not stretch far enough and kids don't get breakfast and lunch at school.
"There's some food insecurity with some of our kids," said Christy Gilliam with Eugene Field Elementary. "We are so thankful. It's amazing what they have brought today. We're winded from unloading."
The food drive evolved in recent years from a long-running book drive where Riverfield students donated books to students at Eugene Field. One day, when the principals talked, they realized a food drive might be as important and helpful as books.
Another special thing about this food drive is that all the items either require no preparation or can easily be prepared by kids so they can fix themselves a healthy meal even if mom and dad are away at work.
Stay in touch with us anytime, anywhere --
- Download our free app for Apple, Android and Kindle devices.
- Sign up for daily newsletters emailed to you
- Like us on Facebook
- Follow us on Instagram
- SUBSCRIBE on YouTube
