Northwood, N.D., teens make record food donation to local pantry ... - Grand Forks Herald

Northwood, N.D., teens make record food donation to local pantry ... - Grand Forks Herald

“It’s a big impact, big, big impact,” said Kay Case of Northwood Food Pantry.

Meet high school freshmen Logan Sherva and Skylar Carroll.

"I didn't even know anything about the food pantry before we did it,” said 9th grader Logan Sherva.

"It really shocked me, we live in a small town and you think you know everybody, you think everybody is just fine,” said 9th grader Skylar Carroll.

But these 15-year-olds quickly learned through a survey for their after school club - that not all of their neighbors - including their classmates - have a meal at home each night.

“It was really sad actually,” said Carroll.

“Like when you watch the news and stuff, think hunger is not in our area, but after doing this it made it clear there is a problem in our area,” said Sherva.

 Carroll and Sherva wanted to fill those empty tummies and hosted a school wide food drive. Classrooms turned it into a competition.

“I never thought we would get that much, the boxes were overflowing when we came to collect them,” said Carroll.

Students at the k-12 school came through in a big way - collecting 1,299 non perishable food items for the local food pantry . . . .a record donation.

"It was really cool to see how much stuff we had actually brought and what the food pantry and looked like, there wasn't a lot in there and when we brought our bags in to fill it,” said Carroll.

“It was a great day because it was the culmination of all of our great work,” said Sherva.

To put it in perspective - the donation was equivalent to half a truck load. And the pre-christmas food drive couldn't have come at a better time.

With so much food - it kept shelves at the food pantry stocked for a month during a time when donations are down and the need is up.

"It’s very important and very successful when we have it for the winter time,” said Case.

It started with a simple survey that has changed the way these teens will view the communities they will live in forever.

"You would think its a simple thing to just donate some cans a couple times of month,” said Carroll.

“It's just kind of being a human you know, just helping people that are less fortunate than you.”