Students at Mapleridge Public School in Powassan have made it much easier for their local food bank to get through the lean months of January and February.
Each year for one week in December, the kindergarten to Grade 8 students hold a food drive, that at the end of the week sees them form a human food chain from their school to the food bank and handing off the collected goods from one student to the next until they reach the food bank building, a distance of three blocks.
Diane Cole, the Coordinator of the Powassan and District Foodbank, says the amount of food the students collected will easily see the helping hand facility get through January and a good part of February.
“With it being such a bad year with inflation and high interest rates we did better and that's amazing,” Cole said. “I can't get over the generosity this year. I'm enriched by what goes on in this community.”
Gracie Simpson-Malek, who is the Grade 7/8 teacher at Mapleridge and organizes the annual event, says a little more than 600 food items were brought in during the week plus more than $500 cash which the food bank will use to buy more groceries.
Simpson-Malek says all the food and money comes directly from the Mapleridge students and their families.
“We don't canvas the community,” she said.
Each day of the week had a theme.
For example, Thursday was Change for Change where students brought in coins from home.
On that day alone the students donated more than $300 which was added to the money that was collected during the other four days.
“The students learned about the buying power their change gives the foodbank,” Simpson-Malek said.
The annual food drive started with Super Monday where the students dressed as superheroes and brought soup to the school.
Toothpaste Tuesday saw the students bring in about 100 boxes of toothpaste and Wednesday was dubbed Fancy Day where they brought in fancy food items families could use for a big dinner.
The week culminated with Pyjama Friday and on that day the students added loads of breakfast items to their food drive.
Simpson-Malek says in addition to being able to help the food bank, the students realize their annual drive also helps the community at large.
One of her students, Dawson Gauthier, said it was good to know that people in Powassan “are getting proper food, especially around Christmas”.
His classmate Aiden Easton said, “Sometimes food can be scarce so what we do is important.”
Wesley Windsor, also in Grade 7, felt proud that he and all the students at Mapleridge could help others “because there are many unfortunate people who can't afford much.” “It's good that people can go to a food bank”, he added.
This year the Mapleridge human food chain is celebrating its 25th anniversary and Simpson-Malek calls it a “wonderful tradition.”
The event was started by Simpson-Malek's mother Tammy Simpson when she taught at Mapleridge Public School.
Simpson retired a couple of years ago and her daughter took over the annual tradition although mom still comes out to help during the human food chain day.
“My class was really excited to see how many items we brought in,” said Simpson-Malek. “The excitement wasn't in a competitive sense. Rather they were excited to see how much we could support our community. The students thought about the meals they were providing to people. It was nice to see the families support in whatever way they could”.
Simpson-Malek says the number of food goods was down only slightly from last year but the extra cash compared to the 2022 drive made up for that.
For Simpson-Malek the human food chain is something that's come full circle for her.
She was a student at Mapleridge when her mom started the drive and young Gracie would bring food into the school from home.
Then she volunteered at the event when she attended teacher's college and as she put it “now I carry on the legacy.”
Rocco Frangione is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the North Bay Nugget. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
