LAMORINDA WEEKLY | St. Perpetua donates over 500 lbs. of food to Monument Crisis Center


Photo provided

A food drive led by the seventh-grade class at St. Perpetua in Lafayette resulted in collecting 502 pounds of high-protein food - peanut butter, canned meats, canned seafood, canned beans, bagged beans - which was donated to the Monument Crisis Center on March 28. The students created posters to advertise the event at school, and went into each classroom to talk about the food drive and the Monument Crisis Center. Food was collected over a two-week period.

On the day of the event, students gathered and counted all the food (the fourth-grade class collected the most number of items), and loaded it all into two SUVs. The actual trip to deliver and sort the food occurred after school hours. Once at the Crisis center, the students unloaded all of the heavy boxes of food, and while Monument Crisis Center employees inspected and weighed the food, the students met with an MCC representative and learned all about the many services the shelter provides, such as providing free food to needy families and senior citizens, English as a Second Language classes, afterschool tutoring for kids, computer lessons for all ages, resume creation help, yoga and tai chi classes for senior citizens, and more.

The students then went into the back pantry area, which is a small warehouse, and sorted all of the food they had donated.