The CSAB-IT class started their annual Holiday Food Drive on November 29th and will be open for donations until December 13th. The class is collecting all non-perishable food items such as canned, boxed and prepackaged foods with a long shelf life, as well as flour based items, pastas and ramen noodles. The donation boxes are located in the Tate library entrance, cafeteria, Middle School entrance and bridge, Student Commons, near each dean’s office, 400s bus entrance and Varsity Gym hallway.
The CSAB-IT class partnered with the Kingsbridge Heights Community Center (KHCC), a Bronx based organization that distributes food to food-insecure families, to complete this drive. KHCC’s mission statement is, “The KHCC provides resources to empower Bronx residents from cradle to career to advance education and well being for a vibrant community. We achieve this in an environment that fosters academic milestones, literacy, mental health support, nutrition, technology and the arts.” KHCC is currently focusing on collecting donations for their food pantry that will start on July 1st. The pantry will be open from 11:00 am to 1:30 pm every Tuesday and Thursday to residents in Kingsbridge.
The CSAB-IT class is a three year course that works on community service projects. Sophie Basner (IV) and Remy Lipman (IV) have been involved with this program as the social media organizers. Basner said, “As the years go on, the classes get more intense […] We started out by doing more minor things like Homecoming drives.” Instead of having a traditional lecture-style class with regular homework assignments, CSAB-IT teacher Shelley Topping-Omodunbi fosters a more student-led learning environment, leaving it up to the students to organize these drives. Basner said she likes that “you have control in the class. How much effort you put in is how much you’re going to get out.” Similar to Basner, Lipman said that the class is “not so demanding, but it feels like you are making a difference.”
The holiday drive aims to help spread awareness about the issue of food insecurity. Lipman said, “Food insecurity affects a lot of our country. It’s when people are unsure of when they are going to have their next meal due to their financial situation or the fact that they don’t have a good support system.” One in eight Americans–which is almost 42 million people–suffer from food insecurity. Basner said, “The common misconception is that you are only food insecure when you do not have food, but sometimes that is not the case. You might have food but it may not be nutritious, and then it is not going to get you anywhere and can lead to obesity which causes heart problems.” Lipman and Basner both ask that people make health-conscious decisions when donating food to the drive to help with this issue.
Due to the pandemic, food insecurity has risen. Individuals and families that were not previously food insecure have started to face this adversity because of the high unemployment rate caused by the pandemic. As a result of remote schooling during the pandemic, more children are also becoming food insecure. Basner explained, “A lot of people rely on school lunch for their food. School is their primary food every day, and if they are remote, they aren’t getting that food.”
CSAB-IT aims to collect 15 boxes of food in order to feed 100 families. They also are attempting to beat the highly successful Thanksgiving Food Drive of 2016. Lipman said, “It’s going to help local communities in the Bronx. It’s feeding not only individual people, but families with growing children.” Basner then added, “This seems just like another food drive but in reality, it is so much more and is so important. It really doesn’t take that much to put food down in a bin and you’re really helping someone’s life.” The class encourages all members of Fieldston to donate to the drive because of how severe food insecurity has become over the past year and a half.
