Fritsch classroom awarded for food collection

Fifth-grader Camryn Aten, 9, divides her money into three banks. One is for college savings, another for spending and the third is earmarked for charitable contributions.

When her class at Fritsch Elementary School joined students throughout Carson City in a food drive for Friends in Service Helping, she knew what she wanted to do.

She took $60 from her charitable contributions account, and her mother matched it. Together, they bought $120 worth of canned food items for the drive.

"We do it because we want to help families," Camryn said. "The more families we can help, the better the economy will get and we'll have a better world."

Her contribution helped the classroom collect 506 food items, the largest classroom donation from any school.

"I knew we had a lot of cans," said teacher Tanya Fonte. "It was spilling off the shelf space. We had cans on my desk."

Jim Peckham, director of FISH, brought ice cream to the classroom Friday to celebrate their success. He also presented them with the Phil the FISH trophy that will travel from year to year to the classroom that does the best at filling FISH's pantry.

This year, Fritsch Elementary School collected the most, with 4,370 food items. Overall, students collected 15,522 items to donate.

Peckham said the donations eased some of the burden, but more is needed.

"This is the time we probably put out more meals than any other time of the year," he said. "It's critical. But we probably hit about 20 percent of what we expected."

Fonte introduced the students to the drive by explaining to them the need of their fellow students.

"She told us there were students who don't have a house," said Reed Lequerica, 10. "That was kind of like, whoa. You just never know."

The students responded.

"We knew there were homeless people out there," said Whitney Warren, 10. "They need food. So we got them some."