Second Harvest Canned Food Drive

DOMINICAN ANNUAL FOOD DRIVE LARGEST IN SCHOOL’S HISTORY

Seven Second Harvest Food Bank trucks arrived on campus for Dominican’s largest collection for the school’s 23rd annual food drive. The 2022 drive surpassed this year’s goal by 388% with a total of 96,934 food items donated, making it one of Second Harvest Food Bank’s largest organized food drive events. This year’s drive included a significant monetary donation acquired by Dominican junior Abi Scanlan when she was reaching out to food drive contributors. In response, Jessica Brandt made a $10,000 donation toward the school’s food drive.

“Our students look forward to the food drive each spring, and they did a tremendous job this year, collecting and sorting all of the donations in only one week,” said Dr. Maureen Wright, OP, Vice President of Dominican Catholic Identity.

"This effort gave us the opportunity to live two of the Dominican pillars, community and service. We built community while serving our greater community. The food drive is led by Dominican’s Campus Ministry Club whose members worked with great passion and energy. Many other students, personnel, and alumnae helped to make this accomplishment possible. We are grateful to all of them."

Inspiration for this year’s competition was the board game, Clue, with all class levels and alumnae participating. Total collections during the one-week drive:

8th Graders: 21,201

Freshmen: 6,704

Sophomores: 4,158

Juniors: 36,591

Seniors: 22,134

Alumnae: 6,146

“This total of more than 90,000 items of food is just outstanding,” said Second Harvest President & CEO Natalie Jayroe. “The annual Dominican food drive helps to feed thousands of hungry in our community every year. And the wonderful $10,000 monetary donation will help feed 40,000 people as well.”

Thanksgiving Baskets

Exceeding its goal for this year’s annual Thanksgiving Baskets Drive, Dominican delivered 125 Thanksgiving baskets to St. Rita Catholic Church in New Orleans for distribution to families in the neighborhood. The baskets were filled with food items to make a complete Thanksgiving meal for a family. Dominican partnered with St. Rita for this year’s drive. Dominican’s Campus Ministry coordinated the one-week food drive that collected donations from homerooms, clubs, and athletic teams. Dominican alumnae, spanning several class years, donated 31 Thanksgiving baskets to the annual drive. Turkeys were donated by the parishes of neighboring St. Rita Catholic Church and Mary Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Mandeville. The Dominican Dads Club delivered the 125 baskets to St. Rita Catholic School where Dominican students assisted with distribution. The Thanksgiving Baskets Drive will feed more than 1,000 people.

Adopt-A-Family

St. Mary’s Dominican High School delivered Christmas spirit when it adopted 147 individuals for the school’s annual Adopt-a-Family. Receiving gifts and goodwill were 119 individuals from various organizations under Catholic Charities and 28 individuals from the Metro Centers for Community Advocacy.

Gifts were provided by Religion classes and through donations from school personnel. Campus Ministry officers organized the gifts and helped the Dads Club members load their vehicles for delivery to the two organizations.

Ukraine Donation Drive

During a one-week donation drive for Ukraine, the Dominican community collected donations of medicine, school supplies, children’s clothing, food, and toiletries that equated to three pick-ups of all donations. A Blue and Yellow Dress Down Day collected $3738.75 from students and personnel who donated a minimum of $5 to participate. Dominican alumnae contributed $555. Total monetary donations were $4293.75. The drive was coordinated by the school’s Office of Dominican Catholic Identity and the Student Council, in partnership with the Udych family which has family members in Ukraine. Dominican’s donations were sent to the east coast for shipment to Europe and distribution to Ukraine.n

Kindness Week