Just before fall break, Ellie Tunnell and other Cate School students organized a Food Drive in Carpinteria to assist local nonprofit organizations in supporting the people who do not have kitchens during the holiday season.
Through her work with Cate’s food committee, Tunnell spoke with Siena Hooper from Santa Barbara Food Rescue about area nonprofits and their need for more resources; an encounter that sparked the idea to run a food drive.
“I’m really interested in food insecurity myself, and I have been working with Santa Barbara Food Rescue to get all of our food waste at Cate to local nonprofit organizations,” Tunnell said. “It is something that I have been interested in for a while, but I have never run a food drive before.”
Hooper put Tunnell in contact with Tom Spadoro, the director of Genuine Concern for Others, Inc., a nonprofit in Santa Barbara that aims to assure people’s health, safety, and general welfare through a focus on self-sufficiency and relief for the disadvantaged. Throughout the pandemic, Genuine Concern for Others, Inc. has assembled snack packs with nonperishable items to deliver to those in need.
Spadaro, who has decades of experience running local food drives, provided lists of food that would be needed and helped spread the word about the drive beyond the Cate community.
“Big credit to Ellie; she did all of the work. I was just able to help facilitate,” Spadoro said. “I’m very thankful that she and the school would look at this need and try to help meet it. It’s very commendable.”
After ironing out the details, Tunnell, along with fellow Cate students Lylie Bechtel, Jengus Ercil, and Paige Rawiszer, helped spearhead the efforts to put on the drive. Bechtel worked closely with the Albertsons in Casitas Plaza to secure the location; Ercil worked up flyers to advertise to the Cate community; and as a Public Service Night head and senior leader, Rawiszer helped to organize the process.
“We were down there [at Casitas Plaza] for four hours, tracking down everyone that came into Albertsons,” Tunnell said. “We honestly had more rejections, but it was just a great experience learning to market and catch people’s attention, and overall it was very successful.”
The drive generated nearly 400 pounds of food that benefitted both Genuine Concern for Others, Inc. and the Santa Barbara Food Bank; and countless individuals as a result.
“It’s a rewarding feeling collecting so much food and seeing all of the pieces come together,” Tunnell said. “It took a lot of effort, but it was so doable. Everyone in the community wants to help out, and all of the people we connected with were so excited about students getting involved. It was great that it was so successful in the end, and now we have the experience to do more in the future.”
Will Holmes, Cate’s director of community engagement, helped to weigh and deliver the food, but even he attested that the students ran the show.
“The last time we ran a food drive, it was a Cate food drive, but this time the students took the initiative, and it was completely student-led,” Holmes said. “Because of the PR that Ellie and other students did, we had so much participation from the community. Sometimes things like this happen, and they become traditions.”
Tunnell said she already has plans to run another food drive in the spring and continue helping with local nonprofits.
“We’re already in the process of figuring out how we can get more involved with Genuine Concern for Others, Inc. after this,” she said. “I think he [Tom Spadoro] thought it was going to be on a much smaller scale, so he was super excited with the result. I think it could be a great opportunity in the future to get more Cate students and other volunteers involved.”
Other giving activities in line with what the Cate School motto calls “servons” or “Let us Serve” include:
» Cate School is again sponsoring local families in Carpinteria for its annual Holiday Cheer program. The Cate community is given a wish list from each family and shares this information with the community for donations. The Cate varsity basketball programs also help to collect and deliver the donations.
» Lylie Bechtel and Tatiana von Bothmer organized a Clothing Swap at Cate, offering students a chance to swap, exchange, or donate clothes. A half-a-dozen large bags of clothes were donated to Transition House of Santa Barbara.
» Cate students volunteered their time on Dec. 4 at Girls Inc. of Carpinteria, assisting with painting, landscaping, and organizing for Girls Inc.’s Holiday Cheer program.