Hundreds of Park City High School students, staff, parents and other community members filled the high school cafeteria the morning of Saturday, Dec. 20.
As Christmas classics played over loudspeakers, they lined up to fill bags with holiday meals: first turkey, then beans, corn, rice, tortillas, a pie and finally a Christmas card. Then the locals headed out to deliver the meals across the Wasatch Back.
Student Caroline Labrum helped organize the collection and delivery. Despite the rainy weather Saturday, she said the delivery was the best part.
“We get to meet people and interact with them and really see the difference that we're making in people's lives,” she said.
The holiday meal drive is organized by students in the Especially for Athletes club. The goal this year was to raise $25,000. Labrum said the generosity of the community surpassed that, bringing in about $33,000.
This allowed the students, in partnership with the Christian Center of Park City, to deliver 1,000 meals — the ultimate goal and a record in the event’s nine-year history.
“It feels great, I’m so happy to be a part of this,” Labrum said. “Park City has such an amazing community focused on volunteering.”
And that wasn’t the only way Park City High students have supported families in need this holiday season. National Honor Society students, who also helped deliver meals Saturday, gathered food donations throughout December. It’s another holiday tradition.
Every day after school, students were at local grocery stores asking locals for donations or to buy nonperishable food to be donated to the Christian Center. They collected around 40,000 pounds of food and raised $10,000 this year.
Club leaders Madden Silva and Cohen Flach organized the effort. Flach said the students delivered the food to a Christian Center warehouse Friday.
“We start with an empty warehouse, and then over the course of two hours, we fill it up completely with crates, bins, food and then once you leave, you have a full warehouse of food and you know, that's all you that did it,” Flach said.
Silva said it was hard but rewarding work.
“There were kids moving thousands of pounds of crates. Like, the look on their faces, they were tired, they were dirty,” Silva said. “But right before this break, right after a super stressful time with all our tests and stuff, we come together. We're listening to music, we have all this food for our community, and it's like, wow.”
Silva said the food will be distributed to the Christian Center’s Park City and Heber City locations over the next few months.
