OLDS — Grade 9 Horizon School student Brooklynn Hare felt so badly about people who are struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic that she spurred a drive to collect food for the Mountain View Food Bank.
That drive collected a total of 95 dry goods, 135 cans and $270 in donations.
It began at the end of January and wrapped up on Feb. 26 when all the donations, including the cheques, were dropped off at the food bank.
Hare was unable to be present for the donations.
Her teacher, Alanna Sampson is very proud of Hare and impressed by her generosity and empathy.
“She told her mom that she heard something on the radio about people struggling right now because of COVID-19 and wanted to do something to help,” Sampson said. “She asked if we could start collecting food items at the school, so we did.
“I am so impressed and proud of how she thought of others. Truly this is something that she thought of on her own and just needed help to do it.”
Sampson said the drive was a "multiple community effort.”
“Her dad works at the Bowden Penitentiary, so he did some collecting there. Her mom works for the town of Penhold so she collected in Penhold and we collected in Olds, so it’s really three communities: us at Horizon, the town of Penhold and then the Bowden Penitentiary.”
Donna Kraal, a volunteer director, accepted the food and money on behalf of the Mountain View Food Bank.
She described the donation as “awesome, wonderful.”
Kraal said contrary to what some might think, the food bank hasn’t seen a big increase in demand, despite the fact that many people have lost jobs or at least some income, due to pandemic restrictions.
“We’ve been very, very fortunate with the donations through the pandemic,” Kraal said. “The donations have just been fantastic. We're actually overwhelmed with the donations from the community.”
Kraal said food bank volunteers aren’t looking for any particular food stuffs. She said they’ll take “anything in general.”
Sampson said Hare’s idea has been such a great success that she’d like to see it happen again next year – pandemic or no pandemic.
“There’s been a lot of donations from educational assistants and teachers at our school and we’d love to do it again next year and to involve the students as well,” she said.
“Now that we’ve done it once, we’ve kind of got the hang of it,” she added with a laugh.
