Notre Dame Academy in Park Hills has been lending a hand of support to St. Vincent de Paul Northern Kentucky’s food pantry for roughly 14 years.
The partnership that started in 2010 has continued with the help of Notre Dame Academy’s student council. This year, seniors Hannah Renaker and Claire Coppage helped to organize the “Clash of Cans” food drive, with Renaker serving as the school’s co-president and Coppage as school treasurer.
“When I do something, I don’t like to do it a little bit—I want to get involved with every part of it,” Renaker said. “I want to experience as much as possible. I came in just trying to be as involved as much as possible and trying to do what I can to help and grow as a leader.”
Coppage said that after being online for most of her freshman year due to COVID-19, she wanted to join something to help her make friends and work with the school’s faculty and staff.
“I just really like to help my peers around me get their voice heard,” Coppage said.
In 2022, Notre Dame Academy collected 15,000 food items with a goal of 10,000 for this year. They surpassed that goal, collecting 13,469 items, averaging 27.38 cans per student, bringing in an all-time total of 137,713 food items for St. Vincent de Paul Northern Kentucky.
“I think it’s amazing,” Executive Director St. Vincent de Paul Northern Kentucky Karen Zengel said. “It’s something we look forward to every year. This food drive that Notre Dame Academy does for us, in the past, that food would last us until almost August. It’s pretty amazing.”
In the last two years, Zengel said that the demand for food at their pantries has increased because the food prices have increased.
“It hasn’t lasted nearly as long, but it gives us a really good start, especially going into the holidays, to make sure that we have plenty on hand to be able to share with our neighbors in need,” she said.
The drive is held annually in the first three weeks of November. Renaker said they keep it around the same time yearly to help people through the winter. Zengel said this is a hard time for people with things like increasing energy bills.
“That leads to less disposable income for the folks that we’re serving,” Zengel said. “Being able to come to a pantry to get their food and groceries relieves some of that financial pressure. For them to be able to take care of the other obligations, you have no choice, right—you have to pay your electric bill. So, it is excellent timing to be doing a drive like this.”
St. Vincent de Paul Northern Kentucky covers Boone, Kenton, Campbell, Grant, Carroll, Bracken, and Pendleton counties. Zengel said the food from Notre Dame Academy will most likely serve Boone, Kenton, and Campbell, but any neighbor struggling to make ends meet is invited to visit one of their pantries. They have food pantries in Erlanger, Cold Spring, and Falmouth, but also have 31 churches that are associated with them.
Last year, Zengel said St. Vincent de Paul Northern Kentucky served 30,000 across 28 food pantries, equivalent to $978,000 in food.
Not only has the nonprofit seen an increase in the past two years for its food pantry, Zengel said at one point this year, they were serving three times as many people as they were serving the year prior during the same timeframe.
Zengel said the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP benefits, offered during the COVID-19 pandemic were scaled back in March and April. Therefore, people had fewer benefits to spend at the store with increasing food prices.
As the school treasurer, Coppage said this is one of the more significant events she is responsible for due to counting all the donations coming in.
“I also help with the can count,” Coppage said. “I made the spreadsheet and signup for those (days), and all of us have really helped hype up this campaign and get everyone on our council to help and come in in the mornings and count the cans, especially on big crazy money days, count the money so I can make a deposit.”
To help incentivize the students to donate, they offer a dress-down or sweatpants day if a student brings in cash. Renaker delivers the morning announcements daily, reminds everyone of their goal, and encourages people to donate, including staff. The school also makes the can drive a competition and competes against other schools like Beechwood, Covington Catholic, and St. Henry.
Coppage and Renaker said the drive is a team effort among the student council. Coppage said they plan multiple events throughout the year, and there are a lot more people involved than just the two of them.
“There’s just so much leadership in our student council that we really do share all of the responsibility, and when one person needs to step backward for a moment, they need some time to focus on school, someone else steps forward,” Renaker said. “So, it really is a cycle of so many leaders and so many people who just want to help anyone and everyone who needs it.”
Zengel said Notre Dame Academy has supported the nonprofit not just during the can drive. She said she speaks to the junior class every year during the Catholic Social Teaching class, and they have students volunteer with them in their pantry, call center, etc.
Notre Dame Academy Chief Communications Officer Jane Kleier said the food drive helps the school create leaders.
“I think it is clear and evident with these two young women that a big part of Notre Dame education and our mission is getting young women to make a difference in the world, but it’s that service component that servant leadership piece and our student council, I think exhibits this in so many ways,” Kleier said. “This drive helps us do that and instill that in them as they go on to make differences in other parts of the world as well.”
