‘Above and beyond’
Students raise $8,900 for local food bank
It started out as a class project, but it turned into more for about 80 students in the Texas High School AP English class.
For the project, the students chose to raise money for Harvest Texarkana Regional Food Bank’s Backpack program, which supplies food to needy children to help tide them over through weekends or school holidays when they aren’t getting school breakfast and lunch. Their original goal was $2,800, but they ended up raising more
than $8,900, enough money to sponsor 70 backpacks for children for a year.
“The seniors always do a research project,” said Anne Fruge, a Texas High English teacher. “Since it was my first year teaching seniors, I knew I wanted to do a project with a lasting impact, something that tied into real-world skills and something community-minded.”
The students exceeded their goal through hard work. Students divided into groups and came up with fundraisers themselves. Those fundraisers included valet parking cars for donations, garage sales and a car show.
On Tuesday, the students presented the check to Harvest Texarkana. Gage Martin, a member of the group that raised the most money, spoke at the event.
“Thank you to Harvest Texarkana for opening our eyes and showing us a part of the world we were completely oblivious to,” he said.
The lesson will be a lifelong one for these students, according to their teacher.
“I’m extremely proud of their hard work and dedication they’ve shown,” Fruge said. “This is a really special group. They went above and beyond and exceeded all expectations. I think this project will be one that they’ll never forget. In the moment when they were turning in their money, you could see their confidence and pride in their work, more than if they turned in a paper. I think it really changed them knowing they could make a difference.”
After making the donation, the group of students stayed at Harvest Texarkana, working in the warehouse readying sacks of food for the backpack program and filling boxes of food for other programs.
The donation, the volunteer hours and the increase in awareness are beneficial for the food bank, which provides food for more than 100 partner agency including shelters, soup kitchens and food pantries.
“It really warms my heart to see a group of young adults coming together like this, not only to raise awareness, but to give back to their own community,” said Camille Wrinkle, Harvest Texarkana executive director. “Arkansas and Texas are still at the top of the list for child hunger, with one in four struggling with food insecurity. Many students may not even realize that their fellow classmates or teammates may be struggling with hunger, and I think these students’ adopting the food bank and the project has really shed some light on that issue.”
“This donation comes at a great time for us,” Wrinkle said. “We’re gearing up for summer. With school being out, many children won’t have access to free and reducedpriced lunches they do during the school year, and we see the need greatly increase over the next three months.”