Friendly student-teacher competition helps raise more than expected for Food Bank of Waterloo Region

Food bank challenge at Kitchener school A Kitchener teacher challenged his students to collect more food bank donations than he could. Colton Wiens tells us who won.

A teacher at Doon Public School in Kitchener held a friendly competition with students, which led to the school collecting over 3,200 pounds of food, and more than $2,500 in cash, for the Food Bank of Waterloo Region.

Teacher Paul Nagge has been organizing the holiday campaign for the last 25 years.

This year, he challenged the students to try and raise more food than he could on his own.

“This year I didn't have a homeroom. I thought, let's have all the Grade 7 students and all the Grade 8 students bring in as much as they can. If they bring in more than me, then they can get out of a period and have a free gym period,” Nagge explained. “If all the Grade 7 students, combined, bring in more food than I do, then they get out of a period of English and get to pick whatever activity they want in the gym and have a lot of fun.”

The school tallied up the food in the gym on Tuesday.

“I was a bit surprised that we got more than what I was expecting, it was great,” said Nagge. “Last year, we brought in enough food and money to provide 6,356 meals. This year we were at 7,997 meals.”

“Blows my mind just seeing how much food we have, and the amount of potatoes,” said Grade 8 student Lucas Clarkson. “I brought five cans of beans. And then a bag of potatoes.”

“[We have] canned foods, peanut butter, nutritious foods, basically,” added Grade 8 student Evelina Gapakov.

The students were excited for the competition, but they also understood the importance behind it all.

“It's a very real thing. It's a real problem,” explained Clarkson. “I think that everyone should be aware, and everyone should help contribute to bringing food.”

“Really, it's just a good feeling. And it's nice to know that we're helping,” Gapakov said.

“Lots of family, especially nowadays, with the high cost of things, don't have enough to get a nice meal on the table for their kids and their families. So, raising all this food for them, especially during the holidays, is really good,” said Grade 8 student Alyssa Bacaran.

But did the students end up collecting more than their teacher?

“It was close. I think it was very close this year, not quite as much as I brought in,” Nagge said. “I've decided next year, it's me against the entire school. We'll see how much we can get. We'll try and break a record of what we brought in this year.”

Nagge may have out-collected the students, but everyone won in his opinion.

“[I’m] pretty proud,” he said. “It's an amazing school. The kids here are wonderful.”