One Astoria school really got into the spirit of giving – collecting approximately 27,000 pounds of food in just five days.
Students at I.S. 141, which consists of three academies, engaged in a friendly competition that resulted in 29,482 items of food being collected – shattering the record of 14,000 they set the previous year.
Students from the Jewell Academy for Brilliant Young Minds, Albert Einstein and William Shakespeare all brought in canned-food and other non-perishable items to be donated to City Harvest – a first food rescue organization that has been dedicated to feeding the city’s hungry men, women and children for the past 25 years.
“The generous donations from the students and their families, especially during this year of economic crisis, help to ensure that hungry New Yorkers have some place to turn,” said Jilly Stephens, executive director of City Harvest. “City Harvest will distribute the food to its network of emergency feeding programs, where demand for food has increased by an average of 15 percent in the third quarter of 2009 compared to the prior year.”
City Councilmember Peter Vallone Jr., helped the students, who were wearing T-shirts that said ‘I.S. 141 Pride of Astoria’ load up the trucks of food and praised the students and school for their efforts.
“These students come from hard-working families who understand the importance of giving back,” Vallone said. “They truly deserve the title ‘Pride of Astoria.’”
