ANAHEIM : Students Give Needy Food for Christmas

Students from Sycamore Junior High School poured into Jax Market on Friday morning, tossing Christmas feasts of chickens, breads, fruit and vegetables into their baskets as they raced up the aisles.

While many of the students could have used the food themselves--about half of Sycamore students receive government assistance--they took it to even needier people, such as an unemployed single mother of six.

“I’m glad we can help these people have a better Christmas,” said seventh-grader Patricia Ochoa, 13. “Because what would Christmas be like for them without the food we gave them? It would be sad and Christmas is supposed to be happy.”

This was the 13th consecutive year that Sycamore has adopted 25 needy families from its neighborhood, raising $1,000 and holding canned food drives for Christmas. The students buy, sort and package the groceries and, with the help of some parents, take the food to the families.

“All we hear is bad news about kids, but there are a lot of good kids out there who want to help others,” said Tony Gabler, Sycamore’s activities director and the food drive adviser. “These kids all pulled together to get the job done.”

On Friday, students wearing school sweat shirts and red and white Santa hats walked in single file down Sycamore Street to the grocery store. They pushed shopping carts filled with the canned food they had collected, which drew honks of praise from passing drivers.

Inside Jax, each student was allowed to buy $45 worth of food such as eggs, cheese, apples, corn, flour, sugar and coffee for the family he or she was “adopting.” They scurried through the aisles, carefully measuring the weights of the vegetables and fruit so they would not exceed the spending limit.

“It’s nice to see kids getting so excited about being generous,” Jax owner Bill MacAloney said as he watched the children hurry by.

At the checkout counter, seventh-grader Sabrina Walocko was methodically placing her purchases on the conveyor belt and double-checking her list to see if she had forgotten anything.

“Letting us come to the store to buy the food and then take it to the people is better than having the teachers do it for us,” Sabrina, 13, said. “It’s going to show us how it feels to be someone who doesn’t have hardly any food.”

Later that day, eighth-grader Jill Carabba took food to an unemployed man living in a two-room bungalow with his wife and five children, ages 14 years to 9 months. Holes in the walls inside the home had been filled with putty, but they were not painted. The carpet was worn.

The man was touched by the 13-year-old’s gift, thanking her several times.

“Just by helping somebody a little, I learned I can help them a lot,” Jill said.

Philip Johnson and Rosa Anaya took food to 16 people from three families who live in in a three-bedroom house near the Riverside Freeway. Ten of them were children, ages 7 to 15. The adults are gardeners.

The woman who accepted the food said she was unsure what the families would have eaten for Christmas if not for the students.

“Whatever God gave us,” she said.

The students also learned that some do not want help. Seventh-grader Virginia Trujillo called the families in advance to let them know they had been selected to receive the food.

“A couple of people said they didn’t want any help,” the 12-year-old said. “I guess they have a lot of pride.”

Annie Penny, 13, was touched after helping a family of 11--six adults and five children ages 2 to 13--living in a tidy, two-bedroom home. The family had also converted the living room into a bedroom.

“I saw that we shouldn’t be too greedy,” Annie said. “Some people have a lot less than what we have.”