30k-plus cans from schools again support Love Kitchen
“They are phenomenal,” Reid added about the students. “What those kids at Farragut High School do is absolutely amazing.”
“I am so proud of you,” FHS faculty advisor Elizabeth Blankenship told them before they headed to the Love Kitchen. “You outdid yourselves.”
“I think it’s really awesome (to take part in the Love Kitchen canned food drive) because I’m able to spread light in my community by giving to the less fortunate,” said junior Catherine Martin, an SGA member.
“It’s truly so heartwarming to witness the generosity of our Farragut community,” SGA president Michelle Lin said. “I feel so blessed.
“I can’t put into words how incredible it was to see how our community came together for the 10th year of the FHS SGA Love Kitchen Canned Food Drive,” she added. “We raised over 30,000 cans this year.”
While the high school’s SGA led the effort, Farragut Primary, Farragut Intermediate, Farragut Middle and Northshore Elementary schools also participated in the drive.
“We’re very blessed and grateful for the donations” from all the schools,” Lin said. “All the schools were really supportive of The Love Kitchen initiative, and they really helped us.”
In total perspective, “it was really more than the number record and can count,” she added. “I think the true gift was how it brought us together to make a positive impact in our community and help others. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone who donated and supported this can drive.”
Reid, who has two daughters in FHS, was at the school two weeks ago when he talked to the students and “personally thanked them for their commitment to The Love Kitchen over the years.
“Each time they show up, its with over 30,000 cans” yearly, he added.
The Love Kitchen, located along Martin Luther King Avenue in East Knoxville, provides almost 3,000 meals per week.
“And that number is growing,” Reid said. “So, what these kids do and their level of commitment, it just blows my mind, not just once a year when they show up but every time we have parent-teacher conferences, and … the highlight of my visit now is coming and seeing the SGA students taking up money and donations and talking about The Love Kitchen to the other parents and visitors.”
He said there is a stereotype of Farragut’s parents and students being “entitled,” and “out of touch.”
“I just wish that everybody would see those SGA kids and their level of selflessness, how hard they work for people they don’t even see, but they do it year in and year out,” Reid said.
“It’s just amazing.”
