Reston Association’s summer camps have donated over 1,000 pounds of cans for a local food pantry with a “Cans from Campers” food drive.
Over nine weeks, the kids and teens participating in Reston Camps — which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year — collected a total of 1,120 pounds of cans to benefit South Lakes High School’s food pantry, according to RA Recreation Manager Katherine Caffrey.
Caffrey told FFXnow that the “Cans from Campers” effort started several years ago when a camp in New Hampshire noticed their local food banks were running low on items for insecure families during the summertime.
“They put a call out to their campers and said, ‘Hey, the first day you come to the session, bring a can and we’ll donate them to the local food bank, and so, they came up with the name Cans from Campers,” Caffrey said. “They’ve been doing this ever since, and they have put kind of a nationwide call to other camps to join in their efforts.”
According to Caffrey, Reston Camps’ food drive started out somewhat slow, but the amount of donated cans drastically increased when it turned into a competition from July 29 to Aug. 2. The camp with the most collected cans would win popsicles with their camp mascot.
Yesterday morning (Wednesday), the cans were distributed to the South Lakes food pantry, which is run by the school’s parent-teacher-student association (PTSA). Counselors in training will go to the pantry tomorrow (Friday) to sort the cans, check all the expiration dates and then restock their shelves.
“It was really, really fulfilling to see it from start to finish, and to be able to be part of such a learning experience for our youngest campers, who are five all the way up to these counselors in training, who are, 15 and 16 year olds,” Caffrey said.
Although the ultimate goal is to get canned goods to local food pantries, Caffrey said another purpose is to teach the campers about food insecurity throughout the community and why it’s important to give back.
“To teach these children at such a young age that there’s people right next door to them who may be food-insecure and not as fortunate as themselves, will hopefully help them grow into people who will help oversee the food bank someday… be those volunteers that are out there supporting the people in our community with just basic needs,” Caffrey said.
Her goal for next summer is to expand the effort and let the community participate by donating canned goods at some camp sites.
“This is what we did in one week,” she said. “I can’t imagine what we can do next summer in nine weeks.”
