'Share the Harvest' Event Serves Poor Residents

Mike Stowe, organizer of the "Share the Harvest" event held Saturday, is a mathematics teacher at Murrieta Mesa High School, where an early Thanksgiving dinner was held to help the hungry.

Stowe is also a faculty advisor for three on-campus organizations, including the Interact Club, a youth group that worked to launch the program.

Stowe said his passion is to introduce students to the world of community service, basically “serving others before self.”

“In the three years that we’ve been here on this campus and done this dinner, there’s been just a tremendous explosion of student programs for helping other people,” Stowe said.

“It is always important; no matter whether it’s good times or bad times, there’s always people who need help,” Stowe said. 

“I specifically designed this dinner as a community event," he added.

Stowe said that he needed a great deal of help to plan and hold the dinner, at which organizers hoped to serve more than 1,000 people.

“The first year there were 700 people fed and the second there were 1,100 served.

"This year’s goal is 1,600," stated a press release from the Rotary Club of Murrieta.

At publication time, information on the total number of dinners served was not available.

Stowe said the committee hopes to feed as many as 5,000 people next year.

Members of the committee expressed gratitude for all the contributions of food, money and donated labor from various sources in the community.

The donations included 120 turkeys from Abbott Vascular in Temecula and 250 turkeys from students, staff and parents of Murrieta Mesa High School. 

Other donations of cash or other items came from at least another 11 businesses and at least four churches.

“This wouldn’t be possible at all without our head food services worker, Jennifer Collins,” Stowe said. “She gets all the credit for this."

Collins and her assistants from the district's food services department prepared the turkeys Friday and began cooking the birds Saturday morning, 100 fowl at a time.

Stowe had so many volunteers, he turned away offers from more than 400 others, including members of a Kiwanis club from Riverside that just showed up unannounced Saturday afternoon. 

The campus had a school-wide food drive beginning Oct. 1 and Shane Ebert’s class won a competition for accumulating the most donated food items, with the administrative staff running a close second.

This year, support also came from other district campuses, including Vista Murrieta -- which held a food drive of its own -- as well as Shivela Middle School. 

“It’s been an overwhelming outpouring of the heart from people to come out and serve,” Murrieta Mesa Principal Mary Walters. 

Organizations on campus that participated besides Interact were the Culinary Club, the Pink Ribbon Club, Leadership Club and USB.

Those from the community interested in helping next year are encouraged to email Michael Stowe at mstowe@murrieta.k12.ca.us.