Making holidays brighter: Garden Heights Elementary School’s food drive brings in more than 2,500 pounds of food
Garden Heights Elementary School teacher Will Caballero (center front, in green jacket) and his fourth-grade students carry their food donations to the waiting Moses Lake Food Bank truck.
Kathi Uhlinger/Courtesy photo
MOSES LAKE — Students at Garden Heights Elementary School donated 2,150 pounds of food to the Moses Lake Food Bank. And, the students helped load the food bank truck Thursday morning.
The fourth-grade class of Will Caballero donated 361 cans, boxes and bags of food, the highest number contributed by any class. The third-graders in Ekko Nash’s class contributed 295 food items.
The fifth-grade classes taught by Sarah Hunt and Jill Hotichkiss donated 568 food items between them, the result of a wager.
“Our class challenged the class next door to a little bit of a competition,” Hunt said.
The two classes wanted to see which would get to 500 cans, boxes or bags of food, and the winners would get a popcorn party. As the pile of food grew, the teachers changed the prize. If the classes donated more than 300 food items, both classes would be treated to popcorn. The classes got a popcorn party Friday.
Food drive co-organizer Kathi Uhlinger said all 19 classes at the school brought in food, and contributed a total of 2,055 cans, boxes and bags of non-perishable food.