By Chris Lewis | Dec. 22, 2020
Food banks in Mount Pearl are in better shape this Christmas thanks to the efforts of local students.
From Wednesday, Dec. 9 to Friday, Dec. 11, students at Mount Pearl Senior High and Mount Pearl Intermediate hosted a ‘Stuff the Bus,’ food drive to garner enough non-perishable donations to fill up a school bus.
On Friday evening, the bus pulled up in front of St. Peters Parish in Mount Pearl with a dozen or so eager volunteers ready to unload it for the community’s three food banks.
Among them was Con Milmore, who sits as a member of the St. Vincent de Paul committee for St. Peter’s in Mount Pearl. He noted the two schools have been helping the food banks for years.
This year, of course, looked a little different because of the Covid-19 pandemic, but Milmore was more than happy with the result.
“When they called me yesterday (Dec. 10) and told me how much food they had, I then knew I had to get in contact with my executive, and we decided to bring in the other two food banks: the Salvation Army here in Mount Pearl, and the other St. Vincent de Paul, which is at Mary Queen of the World,” Milmore said. “As you can see from the big ruckus out there today, we needed plenty of hands to help unload the bus.”
Milmore said the students this year truly outdone themselves, and because of their help, the City’s food banks will have much more to offer during Christmas, which is by far some of the busiest times of the year.
“The things that (the students) have done this year is just unreal,” Milmore said. “They came up with this Stuff the Bus idea on their own.”
The titular bus, provided by City Wide, had been parked between the two schools for the entirety of the three days the food drive was going on. Students would bring food donations to school and pack it right on to the bus, laying it out on the seats until they were all filled up.
And it was not just food that was donated. Milmore said there were even Christmas trees, hats and gloves donated alongside the food hampers, all of which the food banks are happy to provide during the cold Christmas season.
“With the pandemic and everything on the go, all food banks around the province are in a big need, especially now with the holidays right around the corner,” Milmore said. “Our shelter in particular was down pretty low. A lot of this food that’s coming in will help us this year to get over the hump. Once Christmas is over, then we’re into January, February and March. Those are the hardest months for us, because there are no big donations coming in, nothing like that. So, all of this is going to really help the three food banks here in Mount Pearl to get by a little bit better.”
