The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
GARFIELD GATHERS
Garfield Elementary School wins Salvation Army food drive with 1,079 items collected
The Salvation Army, 2506 Broadway in Lorain, announced Garfield Elementary School, 200 W. 31st St., won an annual canned food drive.
Staff and students collected 1,079 food items for the drive to supply additional food for a Salvation Army food pantry.
The drive started in early November and concluded Dec. 14.
“I really owe it all to our Student Council members,” said Megan Young, principal at Garfield Elementary, adding that the school has participated in past years. “The food drive is all led by Student Council, which is all fourth and fifth graders.
“They collected cans every day from each of the home rooms and kept track of the grade level competition. I’m just
“I’m just very proud of the whole school.”
— Megan Young, principal at Garfield Elementary
very proud of the whole school.”
Student Council leader Megan Gierlach said the third graders collected the
most food items this year, adding that it was exciting to watch them checking their chart to track their progress.
Garfield Elementary also will receive a traveling trophy to boast for the next year as a part of their accomplishment.
This year, Salvation Army honored the winner with a pizza party from Selenti’s Pizza, 808 Oberlin Ave. in Lorain.
Young said the entire school has been invited to the feast.
Rich Stephanchick, owner of Selenti’s, said he
got involved with the Salvation Army to plan a pizza party around Thanksgiving “since it had been a while since I’ve done charitable work.”
The party’s date has yet to be determined, but Stephanchick said he imagines he will have to prepare
for a high quantity of sheet pizzas to be made.
Cassandra Marr, family service worker at the Salvation Army, said since there has been an uptick in delayed payments because of the federal government shutdown, there is more of a need to come
to the organization’s food pantry.
“We’ve already been getting more calls about people experiencing delays in getting their food stamps and checks,” Marr said. “There’s been an increase in need for our food pantry.”