Elementary schools rake in food items

Local elementary schools have knocked it out of the park this year with their respective Christmas food drives to provide items for the annual Lovell Volunteer Fire Department Christmas basket program.
According to Lovell Elementary School student council sponsor Gwen Walker, LES gathered 2,119 food items for the 2023 drive. That total is up 426 from last year’s total of 1,693 items of food.
The top class in the annual school contest was the fourth grade, Walker said, gathering 592 items. The class wins a pizza party for their efforts.
Members of the student council went from classroom to classroom Monday morning and boxed up the donated food, which was then picked up by volunteer firemen.
Rocky Mountain Elementary School also held a food drive for the fire department and blew past their goal in the all-school contest. The drive contained a series of benchmarks with popcorn awarded for 750 food items, a hot chocolate bar for 1,000 items, an ice cream party for 1,250 items and a game and movie event with popcorn for the entire school if 1,500 items were to be gathered.
RMES students more than met the goal, gathering 1,541 items of food, which were picked up by firemen on Monday morning.
Firemen and other volunteers will gather to put the food baskets together on Monday, Dec. 18, at the fire hall, and the distribution to area families will take place early next week.