Our Lady of the Lakes Catholic School has been collecting all sorts of food for the annual Thanksgiving Food Drive. Students divide out the Thanksgiving classics;  potatoes, gravy, stuffing, green beans, corn, cranberries, and more into 21 laundry baskets in Student Council Adviser, Stephanie Swearingen’s classroom. Each basket will be delivered with a turkey, pie, and rolls to Holy Redeemer School, Detroit this upcoming Monday. 

The Middle School Student Council has been sponsoring a Thanksgiving Food Drive for longer than Mrs. Swearingen has been at Lakes. “We’ve done it every year I’ve been here; thirteen years,” she says, overseeing the students. “I took it over from the last teacher, we’ve been doing it for years.”

The generosity is immense, over 2000 individual items have been donated so far by PK-12th grade students at Lakes, and more will still come in before Monday. Each of the 21 baskets will be the Thanksgiving dinner for a family at Holy Redeemer. Most of these families are made up of more than 8 people.

Once the laundry baskets are overflowing, students start packaging bags with 1 or 2 of each Thanksgiving item, to be paired with an additional 20 turkeys. The remainder of the food will help stock Holy Redeemer’s Food Pantry. 

“God helps us in our lives, so we need to help others,” says Cam Chinavare, Student Council member. A great reminder as we enter this giving season.

Educating students in grades PreK through 12 for over 60 years, Our Lady of the Lakes Catholic School provides an educational experience grounded in Catholic Tradition, personal discipline and academic excellence. We offer small class sizes and low student-to-teacher ratios in a safe and secure family-oriented community. Weekly Mass complements a fully integrated one-to-one iPad program, championship athletics, K-12 robotics program, before and after school care, and much more!