Shepherdstown Middle School seventh graders Amanda Baeza and Lily Nicodemus (right) pose with their van full of food pantry donations, prior to unloading them last Thursday afternoon. Courtesy photo

SHEPHERDSTOWN — At the beginning of the year, Shepherdstown Shares President Jan Hafer was asked by a group of Shepherdstown Middle School’s student leaders to give a presentation on the work of Shepherdstown Shares to them. Soon after speaking to the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) chapter, she was pleased to hear that they wanted to do something to help her 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.

“They decided to do a food drive at school for Shepherdstown Shares, and I referred them to Cari Simon,” Hafer said, referencing the Shepherdstown Shares Food Pantry coordinator. “This project will be submitted for state competition. Their goal is actually to go to Nationals!”

The chapter placed food donation boxes in each first period classroom and, from Feb. 13-17, collected 500 units of nonperishable food in them. At the end of the week, two classrooms received donut parties, after tying for first place in the amount of food they donated.

“That got a lot of our students excited, the promise of getting donuts if they won!” said chapter faculty advisor and family and consumer science teacher Andrea Faith, noting she was pleased to see the success of the food drive, as a FCCLA alumna. “FCCLA forces you to become a leader as a student, and that’s hard to do, to step into that position. It definitely prepared me to be a leader and an advocate.”

Last Thursday afternoon, those items were delivered to Shepherdstown Shares Food Pantry by project leaders Amanda Baeza and Lily Nicodemus. The two seventh graders, who hold the positions of chapter president and vice president, respectively, will use photographs and data from the food drive to compete in the FCCLA’s state competition.

From left, seventh grader Lily Nicodemus, Shepherdstown Shares Food Pantry coordinator Cari Simon, Shepherdstown Middle School FCCLA faculty advisor Andrea Faith and seventh grader Amanda Baeza stand on the food pantry's front steps, taking a moment to look over the boxes of donations last Thursday afternoon. Courtesy photo

“We were hoping to raise somewhere near a hundred items. This far exceeded our goal — we didn’t expect to do all of this!” Nicodemus said, as her project co-leader nodded in agreement.

“Personally, I’m really excited about being able to share this project,” Baeza said, noting bringing attention to the food pantry and its parent organization was one of her goals, with this project. “I hope that this makes an impact!”

According to Simon, the impact of inflation first hit the food pantry last summer. Thankfully, the pinch of the economic strain was alleviated somewhat over the holiday season, when community members gave generously to Shepherdstown Shares, in response to a mail-out encouraging an increase in financial and food pantry donations.

“Last summer and into the fall, I had to make some cutbacks. I didn’t buy butter all of the time. We went from giving away whole gallons of milk to giving away half gallons of milk, unless it was for a huge family — that’s still happening now! I stopped buying canned dog food and cat food. Toothbrushes were on the shopping list every four weeks — that was ridiculous, since you don’t need to change toothbrushes that often, anyway, so I took that off,” Simon said, after helping the two students unload the donations and giving them a tour of the food pantry, which is located in the Trinity Episcopal Church’s chapel. “Since that mailing that Mark Kohut spearheaded, where they went to all of the households in town, people are just giving and giving and giving, so we’re in good shape. But I still have to spend a lot of money every week, [because of inflation].

“We are so grateful to be able to give more items to our clients because of this wonderful donation!” Simon said, These donations will allow us to be more generous with our other partners and underserved communities.“