A K-12 ‘Love’ record

SGA leaders fuel canned food success for The Love Kitchen

Collecting roughly 17,000 cans of food and about $10,000 in cash (and converting each dollar into two cans), the equivalent was 37,000 cans raised during the annual Farragut High School Student Government Association Canned Food Drive for The Love Kitchen, which set yet another record for TLK giving in its eighth year of the Drive.

This year’s SGA-led Drive (84 students strong) involved all four Farragut public schools (K-12) during a two-week span in late February and early March, ending with SGA students delivering all cans and money donations to TLK Friday afternoon, March 5.

Elizabeth Blankenship, an FHS social studies teacher who sponsors SGA along with co-sponsor and fellow teacher, Shasta Todd, said “the combined effort was wonderful,” adding about her SGA students, “I’m beyond proud of these kids.”

“They kind of gave us hints it was going to be a lot — I just didn’t think it was going to be this much,” Patrick Riggins, TLK executive director, said.

The schools’ breakdown follows: Farragut Intermediate School 10,214 (cans and equivalent cans in cash); Farragut Primary School, in its first Love Kitchen CFD, collected 9,242; Farragut High School 6,474; and Farragut Middle School 6,254. Principals “FHS would like to thank (are) Mr. Weston Edmonds of FMS, Mrs. Gina Byrd of FPS, Mrs. Deborah Adorante of FIS and Dr. John Bartlett of FHS,” Blankenship said.

“We also used a platform called Give Butter. That allowed people to donate directly to the cause, and that raised an additional 4,816 cans,” she added.

The class raising the most cans per student at each school was Karen Lynn’s (FHS) 231 cans per student; Laura Mitchell’s (FPS) 63; Amy Stedham’s (FIS) 57; and Tim Ledford’s (FMS) 56.