Palos West Students Collect Over 4,700 Donations for Local Food Pantry

Each year during the lead up to the Superbowl, students at Palos 118’s West Elementary host a non-perishable food drive to benefit local food pantries.

As part of the school’s annual “Souperbowl of Caring,” students in each grade level compete to see who can collect the most donations. This year, West’s fourth grade classes were the top donation champions, gathering over one thousand donations for the event and winning a spring tailgate party.

In total, Palos West students collected 4,718 donations for the Palos Township Food Pantry program, an increase of over 1200 donations from their 2023 total.

Palos West fourth grade teacher and student council sponsor Toni Hotzfield said that the annual event is a favorite of the student council as it gives them a chance to visit other classes, check on their progress, prepare announcements, and keep the students and staff up to date on daily counts. She said they also have a lot of fun helping to load all of the donations onto the truck too.

“The energy increases each day as more and more food items are brought in to help our community,” said Mrs. Hotzfield who has been overseeing the collection for over 10 years.

“It is great to come together as a school to help those in need which we could not do without our amazing families!” she said.

Principal Jennifer Peloquin said that the community outreach event has been a Palos West tradition for over 20 years and is a wonderful way for students to get involved by helping their community.

“It’s always great to see the enthusiasm from not only the students, but the staff and community members as well,” said Mrs. Peloquin whose school was named a Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education in 2022.