Sauk Valley-area schools seek donations for 23rd annual food drive supporting local pantries

STERLING – Local schools are asking for help with the 23rd annual “Stock Up Our Local Food Pantries” food drive.

Students from Newman Deanery schools will collect food donations from area schools Wednesday, Oct. 2. Donations will supply local food pantries, such as the Dixon Community Food Pantry, Sauk Valley Food Bank and others.

Gehrig Koerner, director of marketing and enrollment at Newman Central Catholic High School, is helping to organize the event.

“Partnering with our other area schools has been amazing, and this is always a great event,” Koerner said. “We also host volleyball games in October, where you can donate food to get into some of those games to help promote the food drive.”

Cindy Frank, principal of Lincoln Elementary School in Sterling, said the school encourages students to view the food drive as a chance to assist their neighbors.

“We build excitement for the drive by holding a competition to see which classroom donates the most items,” Frank said. “We provide students with daily updates on the totals through our morning video announcements, and then the class that wins the competition is awarded a popcorn party.”

Even Walmart is getting in on the action.

“They donate a ton of food,” Koerner said. “They’ll back up a big semi, unload it and then our Newman students will sort the food. The next day, we start delivering.”

The food drive was created by Mike Papoccia, a former Newman graduate who came back to become the Comets’ football coach for 39 years before stepping down in 2018. He retired as the school’s athletic director in 2021.

In a 2022 YouTube video, Papoccia said he was inspired to create the food drive by Father Paul White, who still was with the school at the time.

“He always motivated me to think outside of the box and come up with some reasons to act like a Catholic school,” Papoccia said in the video. “One day it just came to me, hearing about all the people that needed food in the area and how the food pantries were low.”

Papoccia said students and their parents came together to help work more than 40 donation routes in Sterling and Rock Falls that he helped develop over the years.

“It was phenomenal the way the kids worked at it,” Papoccia said. “Some of them may not have been top students, but they took over as leaders. It was heartwarming to watch them work like that.”

There still is time to bring a donation to local schools. The food drive needs donations of cereal, peanut butter, jelly, pancake mix, syrup, canned fruits, canned vegetables, spaghetti, sauce, macaroni and cheese, pork and beans, noodles, tuna, rice, diapers, paper towels, toilet paper and soup.

For additional information or to become a collection site, contact local food drive coordinator Andrew Olson at 815-625-0500, ext. 155.