THUNDER BAY – Having enough food on the table is a luxury for many Thunder Bay residents at Christmastime.
Sometimes even the table itself is out of the question.
The city’s hundreds of homeless often turn to places like Shelter House for a holiday meal. On Thursday a couple dozen students from St. Elizabeth School played their part, taking $1,700 they’d raised through a yard sale and went grocery shopping at Westfort Foods.
The Grades 5 and 6 students then made the trek to Shelter House, where they turned over the food, ranging from pancake mix and potatoes to coffee and canned fruit and vegetables, to help feed the hungry this Christmas.
“This year they’re in need of the food we’re providing for them and it’s for the people who are less fortunate at Christmas,” said 11-year-old Jackson Glover.
“It’s more important than shopping for yourself.”
The youngster also learned a thing or two about shopping for bargains to make the $125 limit his group had stretch to its limit.
“You need to get the less expensive food so you have more of a quantity of food,” he said.
Classmate Daphne MacLaurin said it was a valuable lesson that taught them a lot about the community around them.
“I learned that there are people that don’t have as much as us and we need to help them,” Daphne said.
“I feel like I’ve made a difference and I feel like I’ve learned a lot about people and what some people need.”
It’s a project that’s been going on for about 20 years, though it was a first for St. Elizabeth principal Anita Treesh, who was pleased with the results.
“It’s just a fantastic thing to see children working together in the spirit of Christmas giving,” Treesh said.
“Our virtue of the month at our Catholic school is humility and these children have just displayed that in mounds.”
