Cans upon cans. Stacks upon stacks of them. Simple tin cans filled with various food items filling boxes upon boxes. Boxes filled to the top with donations and weighed down to the bottom with love. Fresno Christian’s annual canned food drive began in earnest as the campus returned from Thanksgiving break. This labor of love has been a campus wide endeavor, with generous donations pouring in from elementary students and all the way up to the high school students.

Every year since 2012, the Fresno Christian community has partnered with Pinedale Community Fellowship church. All the hundreds of canned products and the dozens upon dozens of boxed items, along with various dried goods, were all delivered to the church on Dec 13. The church will distribute them to families in need over the holiday season. The generous collection by our schools will allow this Pinedale church to bless and feed over 100 families!

This drive was led by our own Robert Foshee along with the student leadership. Foshee runs and facilitates all the service projects on campus, which include among just a few, Operation Christmas Child boxes and serve day… “ I think a big reason we do this program every year is to support the community and follow the mission statement,” stated Foshee. We are indeed blessed in blessing our neighbors through the canned food drive. As Jesus said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ (Acts 20:35) Thankyou Fresno Christian Schools for believing in the blessing of giving and giving generously.

Throughout the last six or seven years, there have been many opportunities to minister to less advantaged neighborhoods such as Pinedale. Though one small can of beans may not seem like much, it can have a greater impact than what we may ever realize. 

Despite this week wrapping up collections for the school-wide canned food drive, the Pinedale Community Fellowship church is always accepting donations. 

As finals week approaches the stuffed animal drive also kicked off. Otters, dogs and bears, oh my! So many fun and plush animals were donated throughout the week. Then, on the last day of school, Dec. 15, student leadership collected everyone’s stuffed animals to send to Valley Children’s Hospital. As a helpful incentive to donate these furry toys, the students were allowed to show up to school in their fun, festive pajamas. In pjs and with a stuffed animal in hand, they will be allowed into the VIP party. 

The little party is being hosted by local Pancake Parlor, Batter Up, as they donate pancakes and breakfast for many school events. Batter Up has been a blessing to the school and the community, especially blessing our taste buds. 

All stuffed animal donations will be donated to the Valley Children’s Hospital to comfort children during their hospital stay, or prior to their surgery. Foshee also goes on to elaborate that all students on campus have a connection to Valley Children’s Hospital and the impact that it makes is astronomical even though we only see it as a comfort toy. “For us to donate it is just a big impact for every kid not just the neighborhood but the valley too” Foshee said.

We have donated over 1000 stuffed animals since 2013, this year marking our decade celebration!

These fundraisers were inspired by the Red Bucket program at Fashion Fair Malls. This kicked off an annual tradition, that will continue for years to come. The school would donate buckets full of supplies and in return, money would go back to the school. The most donated by the school was 84 supplies buckets in one year!

 Eventually, the Red Bucket program came to a close in 2008, but the school continued this tradition, while evolving it.

If you would like to continue to help the community, please contact Robert Foshee and see what you can do! Students can stay tuned for information on Serve Day coming up second semester but can continue to volunteer locally over their Winter Break!

To read more from the Feather visit [Podcast] FC EagleCast, Episode No. 2 – Scott Falk or Athlete Spotlight: Blake Bay.