Every Martin Luther King Junior Day, OVS organizes service activities for students to contribute to the local community.
This year was no different, as 10 volunteers along with three teachers traveled to Oxnard to help Food Share Ventura County.
“I like how on MLK Day, we always do something to help out the community,” said senior Ella Schuette. “I thought this [volunteering at Food Share] would be a good way to do that.”
From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., the students and teachers sorted, repackaged and relabeled donations.
First, they repackaged corn cans, to give the food a more appealing look for people who needed them. Then they sorted out many cardboard containers with cans of different types and organized them into the proper categories.
“According to Mr. Floyd, we processed and sorted a total of 7,500 pounds of canned food,” said Ella.
Food Share Ventura County is a non-profit organization that provides food for local residents who are coping with food insecurities, The organization serves approximately 250,000 individuals across the county.
It operates multiple programs to meet the needs of different groups of people, such as the Senior Program, Community Market, and Kids’ Farmers Market.
“I was excited to help out because a lot of the time we’ll work with small nonprofit organizations, but they [Food Share] are a pretty big, up-and-running company,” said senior Emanuel Zagata-Jacobson. “It was cool to be working in that kind of system.”
On the following Tuesday, January 17, another group of students participated in service work, this time at Rancho Arnaz in Oak View.
A group of seven students and Ms. Davis worked to clean up some of the damage that the recent rain storms had brought. There was no shortage of work and the group was not afraid to get a little dirty in order to help out.
They tended to horses that had been evacuated from other ranches, cleaned up downed trees, and dug drains for the rainwater.
“I think it’s extremely important for us to help our local community,” senior Eugene Fisher, who went on both service days, said, “especially in times of need like right now.”