“I feel like it’s our community’s job to take ownership of it and keep contributing to it, and to keep it at the forefront of people’s minds,” said Mears. “Now we have this permanent monument, so to speak, to our efforts, and because of the mission of our school, I think it would behoove us to continue contributing to this fund and supporting it and talking about it with the students, parents and community, and to as many people as possible.”
The monument is in the form of a Hamilton Community Foundation fund called the QOP Food Insecurity Fund that was established thanks to the school’s more than $6,200 donation in the middle of last school year. That fund allowed Serve City to establish a pop-up food pantry. While it’s not ideal, Serve City officials said it’s a start. Eventually they want to establish a permanent pantry again, but it will be a process. The next step is to increase the pop-up pantry’s frequency to weekly.
“They just went into full action and galvanized and in a very short time with a penny war, raised that $6,200,” said Tammi Ector, Serve City executive director. “They have really taken ownership of this and we are so extremely grateful for their participation.”
Serve City held a fundraising walk at former Vora Technology Park this past weekend to build awareness for their cause and the community foundation fund.
Earlier in October, the second fundraising effort by the school of nearly 290 students took place, which wrapped up on Friday, Mears said. This time it was student-based fundraising, and some incentives were thrown in to encourage them to be “a hunger hero,” including earning a certificate for raising at least $50. The total for this recent effort has not yet been calculated, Mears said.
“We didn’t know what our expectation was at the beginning, but whatever we would come up with would be better than nothing,” he said. “And then it started to take on a life of its own.”
Over the summer, Mears recapped the support the school community showed for Serve City and suggested to the parents that the preschool-to-eighth-grade Catholic school should “continue to own this.” This was around the same time when Serve City told Mears about the community foundation fund being created, and the name was an homage to the Catholic school.
Mears said the motivation to back the effort became an easier decision to make.
“When we talk to students about these things, we use the language of our school mission,” he said. “Recently they used the parable of the Good Samaritan. We don’t want to be the people who walk by and turn a blind eye to the suffering of other people. We want to be the people who look and respond with love, care and concern.”
About the Author
