Hello MRCS Families,
After the fun and go, go, go of Giving Tuesday, we thought it would be a great shift to move into something that blesses our greater community of Ridge Meadows. In partnership with the Salvation Army Ridge Meadows Ministries, we are going to be doing a December food drive to fill up the shelves of their Emergency Food Hamper ministry. We have all seen the rising costs of day to day items, and demand for this ministry has sky-rocketed this year.
This ministry provides “…emergency food hampers for people who are not yet receiving assistance from the local food bank, are experiencing an emergency such as natural disaster, an unexpected financial hardship, or are struggling to make ends meet. If you are in need of on-going supports we can assist in applying with the local food bank.”
Emergency Food Hamper clients come from a variety of backgrounds, including:
- Working families, and single mothers or fathers
- Seniors
- Individuals trying to make ends meet
- People dealing with a natural disaster (fire, flood, etc.)
- New immigrants and residents of Maple Ridge or Pitt Meadows
- Parents and/or children with disabilities
“We are setting new records on a monthly basis as to how many hampers we are making. In August, we hit a new record of 96 hampers, and September we broke that record again with 111 hampers!! In October we hit 120, and November is looking like it’s projecting the same! We need help with being able to sustain this!”
Our goal as a school is to bring in 1300 food items or dollars. That works out to 3 food items or dollars per student and staff member. If we reach our goal, our principal team of Mr. Flokstra, Mrs. Sowerby and Mr. Vilayil have agreed to endure whipped cream pies to the face on the last day of school!
So please bring in your food items and money from December 1-21! Each K-8 classroom will have a drop off box and tally sheet. In the high school, there will be a well-marked food donation box and all cash donations need to go to Ms. Reimer in the ELL room.
There was a handout sent home with your students with a list of requested items, but they’ve asked us to add a few more items to that list since we printed them off – see below!
- Non-expired non-perishable food items
- Microwave meals or food that is easy to prepare by individuals, such as seniors who might not have a full kitchen (soups & stews, oil, peanut butter, rice, Knorr sidekicks, Rice-a-Ronni, Hamburger Helper, mac n cheese, pasta & sauce
- Baby / Toddler supplies – diapers, wipes, formula,
- Gently used winter coats, toques, gloves, scarves for children, teens, and adults