Over the last fifteen years, students at St. John's School have been preparing and serving meals at the Kusinan Kamalen Karidat, a non-profit soup kitchen in Hagatna. This holiday, they’re keeping the season of giving going by collecting and distributing a goal of 2000 canned goods.

The Thanksgiving canned food drive is organized annually this time of year by the St. John’s School Service Club.

Seniors Jennifer Chen-Davis and Amaya Bollinger shared with KUAM why it's important to keep up the school-wide tradition.

“Every year, we collect [canned food] from every grade level, from elementary, middle school and to high school. This way, we hope to give back to the Hagatna soup kitchen,” said Chen-Davis.

“We are collecting until the end of this week. I’m hoping we collect a couple more cans until we hit our goal. But it looks like we’re getting pretty close,” added Bollinger.

The non-profit soup kitchen serves a hot meal to those in need nearly every day, according to the donation drive organizers. The Service Club lends a helping hand every first Saturday of the month.

“[We collect] a lot of ready to go meals, since these are given to the homeless people who will need something to kind of last them until they can get their next hot meal. This is something that’s easy, ready to go and doesn’t need a lot of preparation,” explained Bollinger.

The school club joins the soup kitchen’s mission to ensure each client has some food to eat until they can return to the kitchen for another hot dinner the following day. Organizers add with more clients since the Covid-19 pandemic, the food pantry is always in need of food.

“I hope that this inspires people to give back to their community and just help out in general,” Chen-Davis said.

“It's a good way for the lower school students to get into giving back to the community and being thankful for what they have, but also knowing that they can give to people who don’t have everything that they have,” Bollinger added.

The Knights will continue to collect their goal of 2000 canned goods until November 26th, then deliver them to Kusinan Kamalen Karidat by December 6th.

As a non-profit, the soup kitchen continues to rely on the generosity of the local community to ensure no one goes hungry not just this holiday season, but all year round.