Stuff the Bus - 2021 Food Drive

Vincent Massey’s Youth in Philanthropy group has successfully accomplished their first Stuff the Bus food drive. Non-perishables and hygiene products were collected from students and staff over the past few weeks. On December 16^th, the Youth in Philanthropy students gathered all the donations, loaded them onto two school buses and transported them to the Samaritan House Ministries in Brandon.

Two of the Youth in Philanthropy students responsible for the fundraiser were Gaby Milla and Noah Stevenson. This was their first year in YIP for both students. They were going over different ideas on how to help the community while also dealing with COVID-19 restrictions. A food drive seemed like a great way to help the community.

YIP students worked in teams to help make the food drive a success. Several students oversaw organizing incentives, which entailed getting students excited and motivated to donate. They collected prizes and McDonald’s coupons to encourage students to bring in donations. Other YIP students worked with the Student Council to advertise the event with a video promoting the cause.

With over 1200 pounds of non-perishable food and hygiene products donated the Stuff the Bus food drive was a great success! It was a new experience for Gaby and Noah, along with other YIP students, to visit the Samaritan House for the first time. Gaby found it eye opening to see how much food they give to the community. “Hearing them talking about how many families they help and they have so much food yet knowing they still need more” Noah agreed.

Gaby would like to send a big thank you to the student body! 

“I’m very proud to see people donating because they have the privilege to be able to donate. So many families don’t have that privilege. Even without the incentives, in the days before the incentives were announced people were donating.” 

Noah felt similar: 

“I was shocked by how much we originally all gathered. I’m thankful everyone teamed together to get all this food for the community.”

YIP plans to do the food drive again next year and now that they’ve done it once they have better ideas on how they can improve and do more in the future!