St. Rose of Lima School Donates to Freehold Open Door

Students at collected over 7,000 items to donate to the .

This is the first year that the school held the “Loaves and Fishes Hunger Challenge”. Kickoff for the challenge was during Catholic Schools Week and emphasized the value of giving to others.

This food drive was born after the school’s PTA learned this past year, more than 127,000 people needed emergency food supplies in the Freehold community.

“Our students and families rose to the call to feed the hungry and gave generously from their hearts,” said Janet Drudy, Religion teacher. Her eighth grade students volunteered their time each Friday during the two-month long drive to ensure donations were tallied and delivered from the classrooms to the food pantry.

The school collected the donations in March and April. The students from the class who brought in the most donation items had the opportunity pantry. Mrs. Biedenbach’s Kindergarten class (KB) won the challenge with 1,958 items. The school’s combined total was 7,330 items.

KB students, assisted by volunteers from the eighth grade, visited Open Door on April 19 to see first-hand how their donations help fulfill the pantry’s mission.

“We learned that we could help others by bringing food in for them and their families,” said students Tommy Decker and Nicolas Epp. “It feels good to help others."