Bishop Carroll Collects 24,574 Cans for Our Daily Bread Food Pantry

Bishop Carroll Catholic High School collected 24,574 cans of food for Catholic Charities Our Daily Bread Food Pantry in its annual canned food sculpture contest.

The school has been hosting the drive since the mid 1990’s. This year’s theme was Movies.

Assistant Principal Alan Schuckman said years ago the school was looking for ways to engage students and to showcase their generosity. This year, they changed the name of the usual Canned Food Drive to Feeding Families, because Bishop Carroll wanted the name to reflect the service they were doing rather than just the act of bringing in cans.

The students had several meetings to plan the drive, which lasted one and half weeks at the end of October and the beginning of November. They spent 8 to 10 hours of construction time and created eight different sculptures. Included were scenes from movies like The Wizard of Oz, Minions, Up and Titanic, which a group named the Ti-Can-Ic.

Schuckman said it is important for the students to be involved in projects like the can drive.

“We exist to serve God and others,” said Schuckman. “He has blessed each of our students with different gifts, reflecting multiple aspects of His Divinity. When we foster and share those gifts with one another, it allows us to see God more fully in our school community.”

The winners will be chosen from categories including creativity, craftsmanship, representation and design.

Matt Tannehill, director of Our Daily Bread Food Pantry will help judge the contest and winners will be announced at a presentation on Friday, November 16. He said the drive will help stock the pantry for up to a year.

“Food drives like Bishop Carroll’s truly impact the community, not just when it comes together to tackle an issue like hunger but when people can see how their donation is used,” Tannehill said.

“This food turns into a meal for a mother who didn’t know if she was going to be able to feed her children.”