Peanut butter upsets jelly in ODA food drive

It’s peanut butter jelly time at the Out-of-Door Academy. Students at the lower campus and upper campuses participated in the Peanut Butter and Jelly food drive to benefit the All Faiths Food Bank Campaign Against Summer Hunger. For the collection students were divided into two teams: blue for jelly; white for peanut butter.

Previously the blue team was the winner by five jars and was expected to defend the title this year. However, it was the white team that collected more jars of peanut butter. More than 1,000 jars combined were collected and will be donated to All Faiths Food Bank.

“Our students have so much fun with the competition, and service in the community is one of our core values,” said Angela Giorgianni Mejicanos, ODA Spanish teacher and director of community service in a release. “The food drive also gives them the opportunity to not only become aware of the need for food assistance in locally, but to do something about it.”

All Faiths Food Bank’s Campaign Against Summer Hunger is a 40-day food drive and fundraising event to feed the more than 21,000 Sarasota County students who qualify for free and reduced lunches during the summer.

“We are so fortunate to have the Academy support us year round,” said Food Bank CEO Sandra Frank in a release. “During the Campaign we invite the community to donate food and funds to help feed students that face hunger when school is out. Peanut butter and jelly are our most requested items, and this is one of our favorite Campaign events. I was rooting for peanut butter for the win.”

The ODA students will fill backpacks for All Faiths’ Summer BackPack Program that provides children with food to take home on Fridays so they will have something to eat over weekends.