Community Comes Together to Help Struggling Families

Four hundred families will receive boxes of nonperishable food this weekend thanks to a food drive organized by students and Rotary members.

Members of the and Wheeling Rotary clubs led the project in conjunction with and .

Wheeling’s Student Council ran an all-school food drive this month and collected donations from community members. Maritza Carvajal, Student Council secretary, said donations poured in as classes competed to amass the most items. Even more support came from Wheeling residents, who responded to fliers that students placed on their doors, asking that they contribute by leaving donations on their curbs on a designated pickup day.

“The response was pretty good,” she said, adding that the Student Council did not set a specific goal for food donations. Instead, she said, the teens aimed “just to feed all the families we need to feed.”

They were assisted by students at Cooper, who donated food for the project. It took two vans to transport the 40 cases of food they collected to Wheeling, where high school students, middle school students and Rotarians gathered Monday to sort the donations and pack them into 400 boxes donated by Buffalo Grove’s office.

“We’ve done (the food drive) now for three years in a row and we try to time it to support this event,” said Pam Kibbons, Cooper principal and Buffalo Grove Rotary member.

Members of the school’s extracurricular Art Club made holiday cards that were included in the food boxes, she added.

“The kids did a wonderful job,” Buffalo Grove Rotary member Denny Snyder said.

“As far as donations, we got probably the same amount as last year, but there’s 80 more needy families this year,” he said. “Unfortunately, each family will probably get a little less than last year.”

The families were identified through District 214, District 21 and , Snyder said.

In addition to items such as canned vegetables, beans, pasta, soup and macaroni and cheese, each family will receive a $10 gift card to purchase meat at Carnicerias Jimenez in Wheeling. Thirty-six teens also will receive a new winter coat, courtesy of the Wheeling Rotary Club, which purchased them for $20 through Operation Warm. 

“They have hoods, they are down, they are better than anything you’d find on sale,” Wheeling Rotary Club member Nancy Keppel said.

The donations will be distributed Saturday, when families will either pick up the boxes at Wheeling High School or have them delivered by volunteers.