Ahead of the holiday season, several Gretna Public Schools (GPS), including Gretna East, Palisades Elementary, Gretna High School, Falling Waters Elementary, Gretna Middle School and Aspen Creek Middle School stepped up to help fill the shelves of the Gretna Neighbors food pantry.
Between collecting items at GPS trunk-or-treat events throughout the district and hosting school-wide food and toiletry drives, students, families and community members donated over 1,000 items and 1,000 pounds throughout the last month.
“I think it is important to keep our food pantry fully stocked,” Character In Action club director Shea Miller said. “With the holiday season and grocery prices so high, it’s important that families have what they need.”
The Gretna East food drive occurred from Oct. 28 to Nov. 1 and collected 660 total items. Each day with an assigned item worth double points for the competition of which AEP class could bring in the most items. The themes for each day of the food drive went as follows:
Monday – Canned Food Day
Tuesday – Toiletry and Household Item
Wednesday – What’s for Dinner?
Thursday – Baked Box Goods
Friday – Whatever you can bring
“I think it is important to keep our food pantry fully stocked,” Miller said.
The Gretna East National Honor Society (NHS) Trunk-or-Treat took donations in exchange for admission to the event on Oct 27. Along with the NHS students, nine other clubs/organizations hosted trunks, making the event much larger than last year. There were 25 total trunks.
“We collected mostly canned goods,” NHS sponsor Christina Modrell said. “We had around five boxes full.”
Palisades Elementary also hosted a trunk-or-treat similar to NHS and received 341 items.
“It [donations] helped us save a lot of money, about a month’s worth,” Gretna Neighbors President, Roxanne Wheeler said. “We appreciate it immensely, it helps us with maintaining our resources.”
In the United States, it is estimated that over 47 million, or one in seven people experience food insecurity a year according to the USDA report at feedingamerica.org. The holidays can be a stressful time for families in need, resources like the pantry can help ease costs and hunger.
“We do see an uptick in need around the holiday season, we have a list of items that are necessities on our Facebook page,” Wheeler said.
Anyone or any family with a Gretna Public Schools address can receive help from the pantry. The pantry is open the first and third Saturday morning of every month from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. and the second Wednesday from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.
