Food Bank staff and Valleyview students loading up the donations on Monday. (Image Credit: Adam Donnelly / CFJC Today)

By Dylana Kneeshaw

2,818 LBS DONATED

SD73 students compete in annual High School Food Drive

Dec 18, 2023 | 5:30 PM

KAMLOOPS — High schools around School District 73 in Kamloops were in a tight competition Monday — to see who could collect the most food for the Kamloops Food Bank.

Classrooms at Westsyde, NorKam, SKSS, Valleyview and Sa-Hali Secondary Schools worked to gather non-perishable food items.

There were plenty of donations and plenty of healthy competition at Monday’s (Dec. 18) Secondary School Food Drive.

Ali Hawkins, a Grade 11 student at Weststyde Secondary, spoke to CFJC after loading up their donations. The students had also recently raised more than $2,000 through the school’s Empty Bowls fundraiser and Hawkins presented the Food Bank with that cheque during Monday’s food drive pick-up.

1000 Ways to Heal

1000 Ways to Heal: Moons

Dec 10, 2024

Question of the Week

Should Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson apologize or resign after it was found he breached a section of council's code of conduct for allowing false or misleading information to be communicated?

Dec 09, 2024

One Man's Opinion

COLLINS: Donald has it wrong - again

Dec 08, 2024

“It was really great that people were able to really give and help us out,” says Hawkins. “Having two really full carts is a really great feeling to help unload, knowing that’s going to go towards people who really need it is a really good feeling.”

Pickups began at Westsyde, with the Food Bank truck then heading out to NorKam, Valleyview, Sa-Hali and South Kam.

Mara Jahnke, a Grade 11 student at NorKam, was part of the Leadership class who set up the food bank collection this year.

“I haven’t seen all of the food yet so I’m kind of really excited and it’s for a good cause,” says Jahnke. “If it helps other people, it makes me happy.”

Grade 10 student Logan LeBlanc also took part and says the food drive felt like a great way to help out other people before the holidays.

“It’s a happy feeling to know that kids are actually contributing to this little event that we’re doing,” LeBlanc told CFJC crews after finishing loading up the goods.

Christine Yamaoka is a teacher at Valleyview Secondary and one of the food drive organizers. She says it’s become a yearly tradition.

“This year, we said it’s going to be a pound per student, so it should be really exciting to see who wins,” she says. “Again though, the people who win are the food bank and the people who can use the food bank this year.”

The leader by lunchtime — Valleyview Secondary. But with two more pick-ups to go, the race was tight.

“They’re putting up a big challenge over at their schools as well. And they’re talking it up with their kids, so our kids get really excited about it, too,” says Yamaoka. “Between three classes, we had 650 pounds brought in. In three of our classes. It was wild.”

Overall, students collectively raised 2,818 lbs of non-perishable donations for the Kamloops Food Bank.

• Valleyview: 1,470 lbs
• SKSS: 525 lbs
• Westsyde: 343 lbs
• Sa-Hali: 340 lbs
• Norkam: 140 lbs

At the end of the day, Yamaoka says it’s less about who won and more about the overall goal of learning about food security and boosting food bank supplies.

“We need to think of the whole community as a whole and teach our kids empathy and compassion,” she said, “and what it might feel like to wake up and not have any food in your cupboard.”