STANFORD, Ky. (LEX 18) — Students at Stanford Elementary are continuing to celebrate a new addition to the school. Earlier this month, the school got its first 'blessing box'. A few years ago, one student told administrators he thought the school and community could use one.
Third-grader Brayden Wilcher says. "I had decided to come here to ask Mrs. Miller if she could ask the people that brings the food — which is the church I’m pretty sure — to see if they could make a blessing box and my wish had came true. It's there."
Mrs. Susan Miller, the school’s family resources youth service coordinator, says that around 100 students in the county rely on the school system to help their families with food. A local church, Hebron Lakeside Church, built the box for the school. She says this has been an important lesson for students.
"They could be doing a lot of things but instead they're cleaning out their cabinets and telling their parents that, you know, we have students in the building that need food — let's go fill up the box,” says Miller.
A student teacher's university project fell in line with the new box and got students excited to gather donations. Four fifth-grade classes competed to see who could collect the most.
That student teacher, Morgan Gourley, says, "They seen that their peers were bringing in food and more and more just kept coming in the next couple of days."
This school’s fifth-graders say they know the value in working together. They all pulled together to raise more than 500 cans in less than a week, for this big community project.
Fifth-grader Ben Gooch explains, "It's good to work together because if somebody can’t do something, it’s good to ask others for help and it’s good to work together cause you can get stuff done."
Gooch brought in around 100 food items alone. These students told me that they know that food insecurity is an issue county-wide and they want to set an example for others to help out.
Fifth-grader Sarah Rankin says, "We hope that as many people as possible can help and hopefully get a lot of local areas to help support this idea."
Another fifth-grader, Sadiee Deatherhee, shares, "We also like love to help out Mrs. Miller because it’s a lot of work on her hands and it's better for us to help."
These students plan to keep this box full and continue supporting the community.
