The total weight of Island Pacific Academy’s annual food drive for the Hawaii Food Bank this year strained the scales at over 5 tons (over 10,451 pounds and still counting) of canned and non-perishable foods. This proves once again that school size is definitely not a factor affecting the amount of food that can be collected if the effort involves everyone and everyone helps.
Seniors work with Stan Vincent, physics teacher (blue shirt, back to camera), to stack bags of rice and boxes of canned food on pallets.
“With our enrollment of just under 500 students, we set a goal of 20 pounds per student so that we could work toward our goal of 10,000 pounds together,” explains Nydia Santiago-Cordero, Secondary (grades 6-12) Director of Student Activities. “We are ecstatic that we met our goal and surpassed it!”
Middle school students bring boxes filled with canned goods to the curb to create another pallet of food for the Hawaii Food Bank.
“We’re thrilled as a school to have met and even gone over 10,000 pounds,” says Gerald Teramae, Head of School. “We’re so grateful for and proud of our IPA students and families who truly give from the heart. Several parents have donated hundreds and hundreds of pounds of food to help us reach our goal. I’m sure the Hawaii Food Bank and all the people and organizations that they help will be happy too.”
Middle school students work to move bags of rice from the stage to the waiting pallets outside.
The IPA food drive is conducted each fall and is overseen by students in the IPA Student Government (secondary grades 6-12) and the Student Action Council (elementary grade 5). “Our school values include ‘the power of human kindness’ and ‘generosity of spirit’ so our Food Drive each year is a tangible way for our students and families to express those values,” says Kori Shlachter, College Counselor, who worked to coordinate IPA’s drive with the food bank.
In addition to food donations from within IPA—students, faculty, staff, and parents—the school reached out to invite businesses in the community surrounding the campus to have collection boxes in their stores and offices.
Seniors help to carry 50 pound bags of rice out to be loaded on pallets.
“We visited many of the nearby businesses and asked if our students could leave a food bank collection box there,” explains Cordero. “Our high school students were responsible for collecting, weighing, and repacking any of the canned food donations from these businesses as well as from the collection boxes around campus.”
“Nearby business owners were so receptive to the idea of being part of our food drive,” says Steve Ross, Elementary division Principal, who was faculty co-chair of IPA’s food drive with Cordero. “One business, Great Clips, even offered an in-store promotion to anyone who donated canned food there. So it helped IPA’s food drive, her business, and then the community at large. We all worked together to help the Hawaii Food Bank replenish its food reserves for the holiday season.”
Shlachter says loading and transporting that much food requires a system. “Our students will form a human chain to move the mountains of food,” she says. “Right now all of the collected food is displayed on the school stage. It’s pretty amazing to see how much is there.”
Grade 6 students took delight in passing the boxes to one another to help move them from the multi-purpose room and out to the pallets to the curb.
“In previous years we would load cars—parents’ cars, teachers’ cars, staff cars—up to the gills with food,” says Shlachter. “Then we would caravan downtown to the Food Bank and deliver it. This year, knowing that we were going for a much higher goal, we asked that the Food Bank come out to us with a really big truck.” Turns out though that the truck wasn’t large enough and reached both size and weight capacity with two more pallets of food to go; the driver had to come back a second time to collect the remaining pallets.
“Many of our parents shared the reasons why they donated to our food drive,” says Ross. “One family shared that they have relatives in the Philippines and they donate because they know that many people in the Philippines go hungry and they feel fortunate that their family does not. Another dad shared that he told his daughter that when he was in elementary school, he often did not have enough to eat. So they went shopping together for food to donate,” Ross explained.
Kerri Vincent, Elementary division office manager, smiles behind the wall of cans “burying” her desk during the food drive.
A contest was held in the Elementary Office to “Bury Ms. Kerri (in cans)” which resulted in the office manager’s desk being completed canned in. Kindergarten through grade 5 students learned that the Food Bank helps almost 50,000 keiki on Oahu that don’t have enough food to eat and almost 50,000 kupuna who often have to choose between buying food to eat or paying for utility bills or medicine (this fact was even more meaningful on Na Kupuna Day – read related story here).
Elementary teachers made learning meaningful by having students graph, calculate, and sort food that was collected. A challenge question each week was displayed in the office: How many ears of corn does it take to make a 6 pound can of corn? How many niblets of corn on a corn cob? What is the weight in ounces of food bought in a grocery bag? What is the cost of the bag?
Elementary students are all smiles in the division office with the incredible amounts of food donated from their grades.
Secondary students could opt to donate $10 and get a free dress pass. With this effort the grades 6-12 students raised over $500 which is also being donated to the Hawaii Food Bank.
State Representative Ty Cullen stopped by to congratulate the students. “I really wanted to be here to see what 10,000+ pounds of food looked like!” Cullen explained. “It was impressive.”
One of the many pallets of food being donated to the Hawaii Food Bank from IPA’s food drive loading into the truck.
Teramae explains that the success of the Food Drive is a reflection of the entire IPA community. “The food drive involves everyone at the school, and now includes even our surrounding community neighbors. When we work together to achieve something we can do great things,” he says.
Local businesses that supported the IPA food drive include: K & K Distributors, Kapolei Domino’s Pizza (Store #1803, Kapolei Parkway), K Nails Salon, Kapolei Pet Hospital, West Oahu Vet Center, Cupcake and Things, Great Clips Kapolei Village Center, My Cafe in Kapolei, Complete Dermatology, and even churches that meet at IPA including Aloha Nani Baptist Church, Journey Church, and St. Nicolas Church.
