Eight-year-old Keaton Snell of Winter Haven, Fla., assiduously saved his allowance and birthday money for months, trying to accumulate enough to buy himself a snake. Once he’d saved $114, he approached his mom about getting the pet, but she said he needed to wait until he was 10-years-old.
Keaton wanted to spend the money this year, however, so he decided to buy food for those less fortunate.
He got the idea from his second grade class, which has been talking about ways the kids can help the community and holding a food drive. His teacher, Lori Davis, tells the News Chief, “We’ve been having conversations about the less fortunate, and Keaton is particularly sympathetic about it. He came to me and said, ‘I want to spend $114 on food for the poor,’ and I thought that’s a lot of money, but it was totally his idea and it shows how deep in his heart he feels about this.”
Keaton started by raiding his pantry to give to others. His mom, Shannon Snell, says “I kept telling him he can’t give all of our food away. We need some, too. So it came to the point where he was like, ‘Mom, just take me to the grocery store, and I’ll buy the food.”
Shannon made a deal with her son that she would match his contributions. Keaton ended up donating 72 cans, which will stock the food pantry at The Mission, a Winter Haven, Fla., church organization that feeds the hungry and helps the homeless.
Keaton’s classmates were donating an average of about two cans per person, but when they saw all the cans he brought, it inspired them to give more.
Davis says, “He came into school with two bags overflowing with cans. The other kids saw it, we talked about Keaton using his own money and they all got really excited about it. They started bringing in more cans and we saw the school count rise a lot.”
So far, the school has collected 3,000 cans of food. As for Keaton, he may not yet have a pet snake, but his teacher rewarded him with one week during which he doesn’t have to wear his school uniform. “He went above and beyond,” Davis says.
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Tag: food drive
An Apple a Day Will Transform Traditional Food Drives
As Americans brace for the holiday season, they’ll also take a cue to begin collecting canned vegetables and boxes of rice, pasta and stuffing to donate to local food drives. While this is an important annual tradition for the one in seven Americans relying on food banks, it’s a custom overdue for a makeover.
In hopes of replacing those boxes of canned goods with loads of vegetables, fruits and other nutritious items, the charity platform AmpYourGood is teaming up with nutrition education program Veggiecation to raise awareness through An Apple A Day, an online food drive.
Kicking off on Oct. 24, Veggiecation will launch An Apple A Day to collect a group of ingredients needed to prepare simple, plant-based recipes on AmpYourGood’s crowd-feeding platform. The initiative is part of the annual campaign Food Day, which drives awareness for healthy eating and improving food policies.
AmpYourGood’s crowd-feeding platform, similar to crowdfunding websites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, encourages users to purchase nutritious food items that are delivered directly to the organization in need. Instead of donating cheap, unhealthy items, Americans can help transform food drives to focus on fresh, nutrition-rich food.
With more than 50,000 food pantries, shelters, soup kitchens and other services helping fight food insecurity in the United States, online campaigns like AmpYourGood’s crowd-feeding platform give Americans an opportunity to help the hungry tackle one of the biggest issues they face: access to nutritious food.
As we’ve learned, when a hungry person on food stamps is given the choice to buy an apple over a carb-laden bag of chips, they’ll likely choose the unhealthy snack to satiate their appetite. But if we could start encouraging more online food drives that instantly provide fresh produce and healthy options, we could begin changing the fundamental ways in how we help the hungry.
MORE: Want to Do Something Easy to Help Feed the Hungry this Christmas? Here You Go.