Students learn lesson in sharing

Westlake students, from left, David Wanhainen, Sean Freeman, Marco Miranda, and Jared Sommers rode the bus to deliver donated food items to the May Dugan Center.

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Students and families throughout the Westlake City School District collected more than 3,500 food items – valued at approximately $10,000 – to benefit May Dugan Center and Westlake Assistance during the annual PTA Council Food Drive. The collection effort was moved from the spring to fall this year.

Westlake High School partnered with Giant Eagle to stage a fill-the-carts "Food Fight" between the classes, with the Class of 2014 coming out on top. Giant Eagle kicked in an additional cartload of food to increase the Juniors' winning donation. Elementary schools collected cereal and students and families in the middle grades donated peanut butter and jelly.

Student and parent volunteers loaded the food onto a school bus for delivery to the May Dugan Center, which serves 10,000 people each year in Cleveland’s Near West Side neighborhoods.

Westlake Assistance is a service of the city's Community Services Department, which offers programs and activities to enrich the lives of the fifty-plus population at the Westlake Center and provides a system of social services, including emergency food for Westlake residents of all ages.