ODESSA, Texas — In early November, IDEA Yukon Academy and College Preparatory hosted a canned food drive on its campus. The non-perishable food items were donated by school families, staff and the Odessa community.
While several students across the Permian Basin are on their holiday break, a group of students with these schools woke up bright and early to deliver the items collected.
The donations added up to a total of 300 lbs.
As nearly a dozen students helped an IDEA Yukon teacher take the items out from a vehicle and brought boxes of donations inside, a spokesperson with the West Texas Food Bank (WTFB) said, "all of this definitely helps, this is everything that we need."
The West Texas Food Bank is feeding more people than ever before.
"Last week we had 650 families come through our drive-through, and then before that, we had 630 come through our drive through in Midland; which is the most we have ever done," said Autumn Simpson, the director of external affairs for WTFB.
IDEA Yukon School Counselor Katelyn Madrid said the group of students who delivered the donations were 8th and 9th graders. The hope is to be able to feed 200 families with these donations.
"We love when students get involved, a role that they get to play is providing food for families in need," Simpson said. "We have a lot of families in need right now. Inflation is high, grocery prices are high."
Upon delivering the items, some of the students stayed at WTFB to donate some of their time.
"So when food drives come, and we love food drives, we need help processing the food drive," Simpson said. "We need help cleaning the cans and making sure they're not dented and making sure they're not expired [...] We really appreciate volunteers coming in and helping us process all of that."
The West Texas Food Bank is accepting all kinds of holiday food as long as it's shelf-stable. Currently, canned non-perishable items are most needed.
On Tuesday, WTFB is hosting its Odessa Pantry from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., but community members are also welcome to get an emergency box at any time.
WTFB is accepting donations until Tuesday. Then, during the week of Dec. 2, it will accept donations Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
"We are here to help, at anytime [...] That's our mission," Simpson said. "We are throughout our 19 counties all the way from Dawson, down to Terlingua, Presidio, Monahans, if you need help, there's somewhere in your area to get food, just give us a call and we can help you figure out where to go."