Local food drive helps many in area

Published 11:05 am Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Members of the Bowling Green High School Lady AcaPurples sing Ingrid Michaelson's "The Way I Am" during the 3rd Annual Will Sing for Food event at Bowling Green Junior High School, Sunday, Nov. 18, 2012 in Bowling Green, Ky. The event, which is the brainchild of 15-year-old Caroline Ford, helps stock the American Red Cross food pantry each year with nonperishable food items. Sunday's event included 16 different performances. (Photo by Nathan Morgan/Daily News)

Food drives are vital, not only during the holidays, but throughout the year, and we are glad to see that people are coming together to make sure those in the community who are in need of food will be getting it.

Area students are doing their part. This marks the third year students from these schools have participated in “Will Sing for Food” and is the second event the group has put together.

Last weekend, about 16 students sang in an effort to get people to donate food. The food collected will go to the food pantry of the South Central Kentucky chapter of the American Red Cross. This group has raised about $40,000 for charity since its creation.

This year, each act brought in about 50 cans of food as the entry fee to the event. The local chapter typically serves about 40 families a month.

So much food was donated at the event at Bowling Green Junior High School that cans and boxes of food lined the edge of the stage in the school’s auditorium. It also spilled over into shopping carts beside the stage and was even stacked in the form of a cross as the young performers sang.

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Credit Carolyn Ford, now a sophomore at South Warren High School, with creating the event three years ago.

Not only is this event good for those less fortunate and the kids who help, it also good for the Red Cross because it provides needed food and teaches people the value of getting involved in a selfless process that benefits so many, especially during the holidays, when a lot of people’s pockets are stretched very thin.

Providing food during the holidays is especially important because some children who are fed at school can’t rely on those regular meals during breaks.

The young students have gone above and beyond in their help for those in need with their creative initiative. We applaud them and the Red Cross for this most important effort.