This year, we reimagined the annual Student and Alumni Food Drives to safely continue the tradition of serving together to assist local families experiencing food insecurity, and the JHS community stepped up in big ways!
Here is a quick recap of Food Drive 2020, reimagined.
SPONSORED FAMILIES
Students and JHS staff were asked to sign up to "sponsor" families. In just over a day, all 50 slots to sponsor families through Lifeworks NW with hand-picked gifts had filled up. So, we asked Lifeworks for more families, shared the link with JHS parents, and the slots quickly filled again!
After calling families for wish lists and shopping for each person in the household, members of the JHS community delivered gifts to 88 sponsored families, COVID-style (masks on, hands gloved or sanitized, knocking on doors and standing back).
FUNDRAISING
In order to provide gift cards to 300 families, we set an ambitious fundraising goal of $16,850. Thanks to the generosity of the Jesuit community, we exceeded this goal. As of December 17, the Jesuit community had raised over $18,000, allowing us to share donations with other community organizations.
NON-PERISHABLE FOOD COLLECTION
On Wednesday, December 16, students, faculty, and staff filled two large trucks with 11,000 lbs of canned soup, tomato sauce, chili, fruit, veggies, beans, rice, pasta, oatmeal, PB & J, tuna, snacks, cereal and other non-perishables collected from members of our community and visitors at Sader Lights.
THANK YOU
We are beyond grateful for the immense generosity of the Jesuit community during this year's Food Drives. Thanks to all of you, we raised over $18,000 for gift cards, sponsored 88 families, collected 11,000 lbs of food for the St. Andrew and St. Cecilia pantries, and gathered donations from the 1,300 people who attended Sader Lights. Thank you so much for helping us continue this Jesuit tradition.
ALUMNI FOOD DRIVE
Alumni Food Drive was reimagined as well, with the safety of our volunteers and families at the top of our list. We were able to provide 3,000 $30 gift cards to families, with over $50,000 raised through the generosity of alumni, friends, organizations, including the Safeway foundation. Our outreach focused on our partners agencies and schools including Portland Public Schools, Beaverton School District and 15 other agencies from Vancouver to Salem and Seaside to Clackamas. We also asked our alumni community to write love letters, connecting families through love and hope. We are so grateful for your generous gifts of donations and love letters which brought love and light to so many families this Christmas season!