• Swift Creek High students supported the project
Students and staff at Thayne Elementary School conducted a spring food drive over three weeks, successfully collecting and donating over 2000 food items and $1200 in cash to the Thayne and Alpine Food Banks. Through the Wyoming Food Bank, each dollar donated provides the equivalent of three meals to a patron in need.
“We usually do this in the fall,” said organizer Janice Rosales, who teaches Kindergarten at TES. “We decided to do it now because tax season is hard for people after winter with their high electric bills.” Thayne Food Bank Director Julie Buckley had indicated to Rosales that people are always very generous during the fall with the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, but spring and tax season is a “hard time when they have a lot of patrons coming in for food.”
Students and families collected 1910 items at the school. A box placed at the Thayne Broulim’s location brought in an additional 93 items. “That’s from community members not involved with the school,” said Rosales. This year’s efforts brought in 600 more items than last year’s drive. “That’s a lot! I thought it was super successful.”
Parents were very involved in the operation, collecting and tallying items each week so that students could see totals, which was important to them, since there was a competitions between grade levels. The kindergarten won the contest and the class in each grade that donated the most items won a donut party. Teachers and parents kept charts in the hallways so kids could monitor their and be inspired.
“It was so fun,” said Rosales. “The kids were excited. Every day, kids were bringing in things. Some kids didn’t bring anything, and then, on the last day, they brought in bags and bags of stuff. And the little kindergarteners said, ‘Oh, this is so heavy!’ They would truck it all the way down to our classroom and I think they really saw that they are doing something good, giving some of their food to others who don’t have very much food and who need help getting food. We had lots of good things happening!”
When the drive was complete, students from Swift Creek High School picked up the food and delivered it to the Thayne Food Bank as a service project. “I feel like it was super successful. I was just really impressed with how it all turned out.”
