Love Your Neighbor
Gates Mills Elementary School students continued their tradition of giving back to their neighbors and local community by participating in a week long food drive with the other three Mayfield School District elementary schools.
The elementary schools joined forces to see who could bring in the most food and toiletry items in support of the food pantry at Our Savior Lutheran and the “Pay it Forward Room” at Mayfield High School.
The food pantry is a member of the Greater Cleveland Food Bank, and supports an average of 175 families a year across the four municipalities within the district. The “Pay it Forward Room” was started and is managed by Mayfield High School students to provide clothing and toiletries to their peers in need and the local community.
The elementary schools certainly upped the ante this year, more than tripling the number of food and toiletry items they donated. Over 40,000 items were donated across the four schools, including more than 8,000 items from Gates Mills Elementary. Thank you so much to our amazing school families and Village residents for showing their love for our neighbors and supporting our local community!
We asked our students to share their thoughts on why giving and supporting your community is important. Here is what they shared:
Why is it better to give then receive?
Giving makes me feel good. (Penelope, Kindergarten)
Giving makes people happy and I like to make people happy. (Jamilah, Kindergarten)
Giving helps people know that you love them. It makes people want to be good (Emily, 1st grade)
There are people who need help. We can give them things to help them survive and be happy. (Lucianna, 2nd grade)
Why is it important to support your community?
Helping your community is easy and a lot of fun! You get to help others. (Vienna, 3rd grade)
Some people need help and support. When we help our community, it expands our friendships with each other and makes us stronger. (Luca, 4th grade)
Your community is your family and you should take care of and love your family. (Arthur, 5th grade)
If you’re interested in supporting the Our Savior Lutheran food pantry with monetary or food donations please reach out to Terry at (440) 539-0961. You can also give your time by volunteering at the pantry the 3rd Saturday of every month anytime from 9:00am-1:30pm. If you’re interested in donating to the “Pay it Forward Room” please reach out to Jerry, at jturk@mayfieldschools.org.
Stay tuned as the schools expand their charitable efforts with book and shoe drives in the summer and fall of 2024!