CULLMAN COUNTY, Ala. – “Our mission is that no child will ever be abused, no child will go to bed hungry, no infants will ever be shaken in anger, and the cycle of abuse will be stopped. To accomplish our dream, we need your voice and your support.”
That is the mission statement of Cullman Caring For Kids and this year, schools across the county came together in support of this idea to participate in the #StompOutHunger food drive.
With school systems such as Vinemont, Good Hope, Welti, West Point, Fairview, Hanceville, Harmony and Cold Springs pitching in, they were able to provide an incredible donation amount for Cullman Caring For Kids’ campaign.
Numerous schools have shared photos and statements online such as West Point Middle, who said, “Our Student Council visited Cullman Caring for Kids Food Bank to deliver canned foods collected by our students! West Point Middle had 2,110 items collected! They also delivered fruit baskets to Cullman County Board of Educations, The Folsom Center, the fire department, Woodland Nursing Home, Comfort Care, Chick Fil A, Encore, Boozer Eyecare, Pediatric Dental, Heritage Diagnostic and Dairy Queen, who also gave them free ice cream and food! We are very thankful to all of our parents and students for your generosity!”
Principal Heith Yearwood of West Point High School also shared a statement offering thanks to all involved: “Thank you to our West Point High School students, teachers and staff members for making our 2021 Food Drive a big success. Mrs. Drummond and our ambassadors did a great job collection the donations. You guys were awesome. Thanks to Cullman Caring for Kids for letting up be a small part of your programs!”
Cullman County Schools also made a statement online congratulating Good Hope Primary on their tremendous donations to the Food Drive, which read, “Great job Good Hope Primary! Students contributed 3,721 canned food items. Ms. Mauldin’s class won the contest with 661 items! The food will go to needy families this Thanksgiving.”
Additionally, Good Hope Primary shared a few words of their own, saying, “Thank you students and parents! We collected over 3700 cans and nonperishable items for Cullman Caring for Kids and their food bank. So many will be fed thanks to everyone’s contribution. Great job Raiders!”
Several schools provided incentives for their students to bring in items for the food drive. Good Hope Primary informed their students that whichever class brought the largest amount of goods to be donated would win a pizza party. Additionally, Vinemont High School announced that their students would have the opportunity on November 17 to block off classroom doors with all their donations, and therefore would be awarded a ‘break’ from that class for the day.
Vinemont High School most certainly met those standards as well, with an online announcement saying, “Our students really stepped up by donating over 900 items for the Cullman Caring for Kids Food Drive. They were able to block nine classroom doors…so, it looks like some of them will be enjoying a fun day on Friday! Thanks to everyone who helped make this activity a huge success!”
Cold Springs allowed for their K – 8th grade students to participate in “Wear Your Pj’s for a Good Cause!” Which encouraged kids to bring in a canned food item for the Cold Springs SGA to collect, in exchange for wearing their pajamas to school.
At Fairview Elementary, Mrs. Dutton’s class claimed the title for “Most Brought In” with 1,440 items, while the Elementary school as a whole made a total donation of 3,400 items.
Harmony’s K – 8th grade students made their share of donations, announcing, “We are so thankful for the opportunity to be a part of the Canned Food Drive across the County to help Cullman Caring for Kids! Thank you to everyone who supported by donating! We truly are blessed to be a blessing!”
Assistant Director Steven Sutter of Cullman Caring for Kids spoke with The Tribune, detailing what an incredible amount of support the Food Drive has received: “We actually did this as a contest. When I scheduled this, I was expecting a good bit to come in, but I never expected it to go to this level. I told them at Cullman Caring for Kids that my goal was that we would have more food in here than we have ever had before. Ready to give out. And today they said they believe we have accomplished that goal.”
Sutter continued, “We are still picking up food and donations. We are actually headed to Cold Springs and Hanceville to hopefully finish picking up all of the food. What a lot of people did not realize too, is that Cullman High School and East Elementary had just done a Food Drive for us before I planned this one, and they had very successful drives too.”
He concluded, “We were doing it as a countywide event with every school in the county and we wanted everybody to take part in it. There were a couple schools that were not able to that were actually doing some food drives for some different food banks and things like that. But for the most part, Cullman County as a whole has showed out.”
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