T.O. child donates 255 pounds of food to FOOD Share
Local adolescents selflessly give back to the community
By Joan Trossman Bien 09/04/2008
There is now more food to give to those in need in Ventura County, thanks to the very grown-up efforts of one child from Thousand Oaks and one teenager from Newbury Park. Casen Leib and Rachel Daily have donated hundreds and hundreds of pounds of food for the local food pantries.
FOOD Share is a nonprofit organization that supplies groceries to nearly every food distribution center and food bank in Ventura County. Now, there is more food to go around.
Casen was planning his sixth birthday party earlier this summer and wanted to invite 25 kids. But his mother, Shelli Leib, said there was only one way he could have that many people. “If he wanted a large party, we would pick out a charity and we would donate to that charity,” Shelli said. “You know, he is 6 and he had to be reassured that he’d be getting a few presents from Mom and Dad.”
So the invitations went out last June requesting that the guests bring food instead of presents. Some of the children showed up with five or six bags of food. “We ended up with 255 pounds of food,” Shelli said.
Shelli packed up the bags of groceries and headed to FOOD Share with Casen. “I wanted him at least to take the food somewhere and see what he was donating,” Shelli said. “I really want him to have a sense of community, and I really want him to grow up feeling like he can make a difference.”
Casen donated 255 pounds of groceries. “I’m glad I did it,” Casen said. It makes me feel kind of grown-up. I feel really good.”
“I was very proud of Casen because he was really on board and really happy to do it,” Shelli said.
“When his mother called and said her son was collecting food for us, I though it was an older child,” Jeanne Benitez of FOOD Share said. “I was completely surprised when they showed up, and Casen had just turned 6. Amazing. His donation represents 170 meals.”
Newbury Park resident, 16-year-old Rachel Daily is beginning her senior year of high school. Rachel has been donating about 200 pounds of food a week to FOOD Share for the last nine weeks, food which had not been sold at the local farmers market. “The food is home-grown,” Rachel said. “Its good food, and they can’t drive it back.”
Rachel said the idea sprang from a Girl Scout program called the Gold Award. “It’s a giant service program,” she said. “You have to think of the idea yourself, organize yourself. The Gold Award looks really good on a college application.”
While Rachel was searching for an original idea for the award, she said her mother told her about how the local food banks were being overwhelmed by the demand for food and needed more supplies. Rachel said the award program wants to keep
the service projects going. “I’ll be doing this for the rest of my senior year,” Rachel said. “I’ll be going every week, back and forth, in order to pick it up.”
If you do the basic math, that could amount to easily more than three and a half tons of fresh food that FOOD Share will be able to distribute. This is because one teenage girl saw a need and is trying to fill it.
Rachel said she plans to keep a family tradition going by attending the University of Michigan, her parents’ alma mater.
Casen also has some big plans for the future. “We’re going to rescue a dog,” Shelli said, “and I told him they needed newspapers at the kennel.”
“We’re gonna collect newspapers for the dogs,” Casen said. “That’s what we’re gonna do.”
When asked what he wants to do when he grows up, Casen replied, “Work at FOOD Share.”
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