Notre Dame Secondary School student Stephanie Noronha spent part of her summer holidays collecting several hundred pounds of food for a local food bank.

After hearing on the news that one in five children in Ontario go to school hungry and up to 30 per cent are dependent on food banks, the 16-year-old felt compelled to do something. She discussed it with her parents and approached teacher Mr. Kilic with the idea of a food drive. A goal to collect 1 tonne of food to benefit Ste. Louise Outreach Centre was established. The school annually collects for the local food bank in the fall.

Noronha wanted to start a personal food drive before Thanksgiving. She started during summer break— making a list of people, grocery stores and others to contact for help. Getting phone numbers, e-mails and faxes— the idea was to get pledges for food and then make collections just before Thanksgiving.

She contacted grocery stores, family members, family friends and her former elementary school teacher. The teenager got support from A&P, Price Chopper and Fortinos and managed to collect about 300 pounds of food. She stored some of the food in her basement and garage and collected the rest three days before Thanksgiving.

She also helped with the school’s annual food drive. Students and staff at Notre Dame Secondary School ended up collecting more than 16,000 pounds of food for the local food bank during their annual campaign in November. The...