The holiday season is upon us and that means it is time to give back. The tradition of giving for the holidays stems from many different cultures and religions that emphasize the importance of charity.
One example is Diwali, which takes place between October and November, where participants give back to emphasize the ideas of the holiday: prosperity for all.
Another is Hanukkah, where people who celebrate the holiday may practice tzedakah, which means charity. The holiday shows the importance of freedom, faith and light overcoming darkness, so it is no surprise that celebrants want to pay these ideals forward.
At Linganore High School (LHS), the staff and student body participate in a variety of different activities in order to give back as well.
From providing Thanksgiving meals to local families, to helping kids shop for the perfect gift at Santa’s secret shop, the LHS community shows their core values – academics, acceptance, accountability and attitude – with every event.
This holiday season, many clubs put together fundraisers and donation drives to spread joy for all. One such fundraiser was a food drive hosted by Linganore club Student Voices between December 1 through 12. This food drive was in combination with non-profit Autumn’s Table, who put together food bags and ingredients for families in need.
“Basically, what they do is they have these recipes that are kind of like a dump recipe into a pot,” said LHS teacher and Student Voices advisor Jennifer Weiss, who assisted with the fundraiser. “So they go ahead and have, let’s say, beans and noodles, and cream of potato soup. Whatever recipes that they come up with.”
The bags put together by the non-profit are then distributed in a variety of places. Even at Linganore, there are spots where students can grab one of the bags without worrying about the cost – they are completely free.
Dawn Aburto, one of the learning for life teachers at LHS, was a leading figure during the food drive. She owns the non-profit organization and decided to bring the charity to the school for the holiday season.
“Student Voices asked to do a food drive for my nonprofit Autumns Table Inc. and collected ingredients for our Main Dish Meal Bags. These bags include all shelf stable ingredients to create a main dish as well as a recipe card to follow,” said Aburto.
Classes throughout the school were invited to participate in the food drive, with students bringing in items from the ingredients list or other items that would either be thrown into a later recipe or re-donated by Autumn’s Table. The classes that did partake were motivated by the possibility of donuts – as the class who donated the most would receive a class prize.
“Donuts are expensive,” said Weiss. “[Some classes] don’t have many kids, so we ended up actually having to take the class average of how many cans or how many items per class [were donated].”
The donuts were not the only exciting part though. According to Weiss, it was fun being able to see the members of Student Voices take initiative while also giving back to a good cause.
“It was cool seeing the Student Voices kids walking around and collecting and just to see their ownership,” said Weiss. “Knowing that we could do at least a little good to try and help somebody else, which is what we wanted to do.”
In the end, the food drive ended up providing over 180 donations, all of which went towards meals for families in need. Even though the food drive is over, that does not mean the giving has to be.
Autumn’s Table Inc. takes donations towards funding their meals here. To find updates and promotions for the non-profit, visit their Facebook page
