By James Hanlon
Leader Staff Writer
In four days, the students of Oxford Community Schools brought in 11,128 cans of food for Oxford/Orion FISH Food Pantry. The canned food items filled not one, but five school buses.
Students wanted to stay connected for a common cause during the week of remote learning before the holiday break. “When we’re apart, we’re still together as a community, so we came together as a community and tried it,” explained Oxford High School mentorship teacher Katie Goetz.
Organized by the mentorship class and National Honor Society students, the challenge was a response to a can food drive held by Lake Orion Community Schools, where they raised 13,159 food items the week before. (Lake Orion split their donation between FISH and the Baldwin Center in Pontiac.)
Although Oxford did not beat their neighbors to the south, they exceeded their personal goal of 10,000 cans – enough to fill a school bus. Thus, the name of the challenge, “CAN we fill a bus?”
The friendly competition was also among the different school levels within Oxford, with the high school versus the middle school versus the combined elementary schools. (Oxford Virtual Academy students donated to the bus corresponding to their grade level.)
Serving as collection points, one bus parked in the high school parking lot, one at the middle school, and a third roved amongst the elementary schools throughout the week.
“We thought one bus at each school would be fine and we would just be able to collect a bus of cans,” Goetz said.
It turns out, they needed to call in two extra buses. “It shows just how generous this community is,” said Oxford Schools Transportation Director Ann Weeden, who helped coordinate the busses and drivers.
“I didn’t think that we would get as many cans as we did, especially at the high school and middle school level. I’m really happy with the turnout,” said Hannah Gibbons.
The high school level brought in the most cans: 5,162. The middle school brought in 1,934 and the elementary schools collected 4,032.
As the winners, all high school students will receive bragging rights and free cookies from the nutrition services department.
The drive went from Monday to Thursday last week, with the cans delivered to the pantry by the buses and mentorship students Friday morning.
Located at 1060 S. Lapeer Rd., FISH provides groceries for neighbors in need in Oxford, Orion, Addison and Oakland townships.