Delano High School’s Orange Crush robotics team held a weekend food drive, gathering food and cash donations for those in need. The team greeted shoppers at Coborn’s Marketplace on Saturday and Sunday, handing out lists of items shoppers could donate. They collected soup, canned vegetables, pasta, cereal, and other goods from customers as they left the store.
Mike Phillips, a team coach, said team members, coaches, parents, and even alumni helped collect food for the Delano Helping Hands Food Shelf—a drive Orange Crush has organized in some previous years, though it’s unclear how often the event has taken place.
“We are here trying to do our part to help people out in the community,” Phillips said.
Orange Crush delivered the food and cash donations they collected to the food shelf on Sunday afternoon. Donations included brand-name cereals, soup, pasta, canned goods, coffee, brown sugar, and other items for the food shelf’s clients.
Phillips said the food drive was led by two team members who also belong to the National Honor Society. Participating gave these students a chance to earn service hours and learn how to plan a project.
“It’s a good thing to do,” he added. “And it’s also good to have the kids realize that some of them are better off than others.”
The team reported collecting 2,664 pounds of food and $1,085 in cash this year. Last year, the team gathered 3,171 pounds of food for the food shelf.
“It’s amazing what the community does here for us,” said food shelf co-director Sarah Hagen. She explained that Orange Crush’s annual food drive has become the food shelf’s biggest of the year, and because the items collected outside Coborn’s were recently purchased, staff doesn’t need to worry as much about expiration dates. She added that food drives like Orange Crush’s bring in a wider variety of items than the food shelf can get from its supplier, Second Harvest. The robotics team collected goods Second Harvest doesn’t provide, such as soups and brown sugar.
“It’s fantastic to get name-brand cereals—those always go really quickly,” Hagen said.
Orange Crush member Evan Phillips, a senior and National Honor Society student, said he participated in the food drive to help and earn service hours. He admitted that handing out fliers to shoppers became tedious at times, but the experience was “rewarding.”
Team member Ian Eisenzimmer shared that it felt good to collect food for the food shelf, and he enjoyed meeting and talking with customers. He said the part that made it “so enjoyable for me” was doing the food drive with his team.
“It feels like a group effort, and it’s nice,” said the high school junior.
https://www.dasselcokato.com/articles/community-dhj/orange-crush-robotics-team-collects-2664-pounds-of-food-for-delano-food-shelf/