School District 308 Makes Historic Donation to Kendall County Food Pantry

Photo, article submitted by District 308.

While Oswego and Oswego East High Schools took the football field, Community Unit School District 308 came together to make the single-largest donation in the history of the Kendall County Food Pantry. The donation was for 58,527 food items.

The first annual School District 308 Food Drive ran from Sept. 22 to Oct. 3, and allowed each school to compete to see who could bring in the most donated food. Homestead Elementary School won the grade school level competition with 6,736 items. Bednarcik Junior High School won the junior high level competition with 2,862 items. Oswego East High School won the high school level competition with 2,643 items.

The winning schools were given recognition at halftime of the Crosstown Challenge football game this past Friday night. Gift certificates to several local businesses and restaurants, including Red Robin, Chick-Fil-A, the Popcorn Store, Giordano’s and McDonalds were given away as raffle prizes. Three iPod Nanos with $10 gift cards donated by Meijer were also presented to winners. Those attending the football game had the chance to bring in a can of food and trade it for an individual raffle ticket.

The food drive occurs at a critical time before the holiday season when donations at the Kendall County Food Pantry are not at their peak. The pantry serves more than 7,000 local residents every month.

The total food donations pouring in from all 23 schools smashed the pantry’s goals for what to expect from this food drive, said Kendall County Food Pantry Executive Director Maria Spaeth.

“I thought the grand total could be 10,000,” she said. “Never, ever, did I think that we would reach the goal we reached. Honestly, a lot of people come back to me and say, ‘We are going to do this, Maria,’ and then I never hear from them, or they do not come back. This has been in the works for a year. To reach this goal is phenomenal. It is incredible.”

In addition to the high volume of donations, the food drive did a great job of educating School District 308 students about hunger, Spaeth said.

“If we as adults do not teach our children how to care for our neighbors, then who will?” she said. “These guys took that task. They converted it into a tangible thing and made it something that each child could participate in, and each child could understand, from kindergarten all the way to high school. It was something that they grasped, and they did it in a big way.”

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Matthew Wendt expressed his gratitude to the students, staff and parents who were able to come together to make the event so successful.

“I think it is extremely important for students to understand the importance of giving back to their communities,” Wendt said. “Equally important, we want the Kendall County Food Pantry to educate us on how long these food items will last. In this country, we should not have people without food. It is a significant national issue and it is obviously an issue in Kendall County. I am so pleased our students, staff, parents and citizens could come together for such a worthy cause. This is a great day for School District 308.”

For a complete slideshow, visit District 308’s Food Drive webstory.