St. Catherine of Sienna Catholic School in London’s northwest end raised over 2000 items for their canned food drive this Thanksgiving season.
London Food Bank broke out the #OneBagChallenge hashtag in hopes that Londoners will buy a bag of healthy groceries, take a selfie, and post it to social media with the hashtag #OneBagChallenge. Everyone at St. Catherine of Sienna did their part in contributing to the effort, “it’s a great thing what our school’s doing is to donate food to get people to eat because it’s very important for everyone.” says grade 8 student Rebecca Getliffe.
Jane Roy is co-director of the London Food Bank and says that students contributing to this cause not only helps those in need, but helps the students themselves as well, “ “I always think, when people start caring when they’re young, obviously thinking about other people it gets them outside not just their comfort zone but it makes them aware of the great place that we live in and there are other people struggling within our city for sure.” explains Roy. “The fact they take that extra step, buy something for somebody else in need, that can only go well for the future.”
Nancy Kerr of the Salvation Army says that the use of a hashtag challenge and social media was a great way to get London’s youth more involved, “I think that they’re into the social media aspect so i think it’s a great way to get young people involved.” says Kerr.