The tremendous efforts of Jesuit’s students and staff have accumulated over the past two weeks, and the result at the end of the school day on December 14 was a cafeteria filled to the brim with donations for the annual Christmas Food Drive.

Jesuit has continued its tradition of giving back to the community during the holiday season by amassing stacks of non-perishable food to support families in need from multiple organizations, such as LifeWorks, St. Cecilia, and St. Vincent DePaul.

Jesuit committed to delivering food boxes to around 375 families and providing gifts for 70 sponsored families.

Students brought in canvassed food and money for donation to their first period classes over the first weeks of December. Each class also sponsored a family and bought gifts for the families based on their personal needs and wishes.

“We’ve had good student participation. We’re really thankful for all of the students who helped out and everyone who brought in food and money,” Ms. Emily Schmidt said. Schmidt works along with Ms. Andrea Casey in the Arrupe Center for Justice, and they are in charge of running the food drive.

Schmidt and Casey delegated food drive tasks and responsibilities to student committees. This included planning special events such as assemblies and candy cane sales, advertising the food drive on social media and at school, visiting freshman classes during 1st period to introduce the food drive, and organizing students for distribution and sorting.

Many students from all grades stayed after school hours to help organize and sort through the piles of non-perishable items. The cafeteria tables were overflowing with stacks of canned food and boxes of pasta and cereal. The stacks piled up almost to the ceiling, even to the point of becoming safety hazards.

“I had a little bit of an accident with the stacks of cans falling on my head, but all my friends and even people I didn’t know came over to help me pick up all the cans. Everyone is still helping and it was very sweet,” senior Vaari Singh said. “The food drive is my favorite part of the school year, and I’m sad it’s my last one, but I think we’ll make it our best.”

Once the food was all properly sorted, students packed a variety of food into boxes for each family to be delivered on December 15. The boxes were made with dietary restrictions and nutrition in mind.

For the freshmen, this is their first experience of the annual food drive, and for the sophomores and juniors, this is their first food drive that is not restricted by COVID regulations.

“I think people are definitely more able to really work with each other because they’re not worried about staying six feet apart and wearing masks,” sophomore Tallulah Belle Sprague said. “This definitely represents Jesuit as a community.”

Through student collaboration, oversight from the Arrupe Center and faculty, and decreased pandemic restrictions, Jesuit was ready to begin delivering food and gifts to families.