The hamper season has begun at Riverside Secondary. Students donate to food hampers in their RAP classes to aid families in need throughout the holiday season.
The hamper program at Riverside Secondary gets students to donate items to families in need all over the Tri-Cities area.
The items students and staff members can donate non-perishable food items, gift-cards, and even a monetary donation.
At Riverside Secondary School, the hampers have existed ever since the school first opened in 1996, but Maillard Middle School first started doing the hamper program in 1978.
Mr. Chee, a math teacher at Riverside Secondary, said, “[Riverside staff] encourages everyone to bring a food item but, this is the only year I can remember where we are doing it by grade as a competition.”
Students and staff can donate to the hampers until December 20th and Grade 11s and 12s will help deliver the packages filled with donations to the families; food which is not-perishable can be still be donated on the final day.
Each RAP class receives a family, and some teachers such as Ms. Shong and Mr. Rothenberger combine their RAPs to provide for a larger family and donate extra supplies.
According to Mr. Chee, Riverside Secondary wants students to donate equal amounts of supplies, so instead of one student donating five non-perishable food items, the staff would rather have five students donate one food item.
The hampers are a school-wide event. Riverside Secondary organises fundraisers in the form of selling other products such as Krispy Kreme donuts and bubble tea; all profits from the fundraisers are going directly to the hamper program.
For 23 years Riverside Secondary students and staff have donated items to families across the Tri-Cities area and plans to do so for the years to come.
