Milton Elementary leadership team holds successful food drive

Milton Elementary’s student leadership team, known as Milton 5, hosted a school-wide food drive Dec. 1 to 15, encouraging students, families and staff to donate as many nonperishable items as possible to benefit the Food Bank of Delaware. 

Milton 5 consists of a small group of student leaders who plan and promote special events to help the school and the greater school community. “We planned the food drive to benefit the community, but we also plan events like the house parties for the students,” said Bella Colon.

The goal for this year’s food drive was to collect more than the previous year, which totaled 2,290 items weighing in at 1,900 pounds. By the end of the day Dec. 15, students announced they had collected 2,458 canned goods, collectively weighing 1,978 pounds. 

“The leadership team worked very hard to plan and execute the food drive this year,” said Leigh Rupar, math specialist and Milton 5 advisor. “Their initial goal was to collect more items than last year, but to have over 2,000 pounds collected. So, while we beat our quantity goal, we were just shy of the pounds goal the students had set. I have the utmost confidence that next year we will beat that!”

Food Bank Vice President of External Affairs Chad Robinson and Partner Support Manager Lisa Gibbs visited the school Dec. 17 to meet with the Milton 5 team and pick up the donated items. Robinson told students that one out of eight people in Delaware is food insecure, and that one in six kids experience hunger.

“I think for our students to hear these numbers directly from the Food Bank really underscores and validates the work that they are doing when planning events like our food drive,” said Rupar. “I hope that the impact they are making sticks with them as they move on to the middle schools next year, and that they continue to make a significant and positive impact on our entire community.”