St. Isidore students raise $3,570 for local food pantries

St. Isidore School students in Bloomingdale, along with the parish's faith formation classes, raised $3,570 for Neighborhood Food Pantries during a Lenten service project.

The students raised enough money to fill 714 shopping carts with groceries, surpassing their goal of collecting enough cash donations to fill 500 grocery carts. The amount also bettered last year's totals, when St. Isidore raised $2,150, enough to fill 430 carts.

The service project was launched just before Lent began at the St. Isidore Wednesday student Mass, when a grocery cart filled with food was brought to the altar by five St. Isidore students to demonstrate that as little as $5 could provide a shopping cart of food to families in need.

"The school and faith formation students learned that for every $5 they raised, Neighborhood Food Pantries could give a shopping cart full of food to a person or family in need," said St. Isidore parent Ellen Prosch, who served as co-coordinator for the program along with parent and school board member Sally Meyers.

"We encouraged them to think in terms of, 'What can I buy for myself with $5, vs. how much could that same $5 do for someone in need?'"

"We collected monies from the beginning of Lent through Easter break," Meyers added. "The kids came through big time. We far surpassed last year's goal, which just shows that through this kind of service project they are beginning to better understand that not everyone is as fortunate as they are, and that one out of every five kids in DuPage County goes to bed hungry.

"We were hoping to build on the momentum from last year's campaign that filled 430 carts, and were just thrilled how the kids came through big time. Seven hundred fourteen grocery carts worth of food for those in need is significant, and a valuable, charitable learning experience for our school and faith formation students," Meyers said.

Neighborhood Food Pantries serves families in the DuPage County area who are in need of basic grocery items and personal supplies, as well as financial support for medical care and/or prescriptions, housing and utilities.

Six local food pantry sites in DuPage County - at churches in Carol Stream (two locations), Glendale Heights, Warrenville, Wayne and West Chicago - last year served more than 3,400 families with three to seven days' worth of food each visit.

With monetary contributions, Neighborhood Food Pantries can stretch each dollar by buying food through the Northern Illinois Food Bank, which purchases food directly from manufacturers and producers and sells it to pantries at a discount from retail prices.