A time to give: Lost River students provide food boxes to Malin, Merrill families

Twenty Malin and Merrill families received a full Thanksgiving food box, including a turkey and a bag of potatoes, thanks to students at Lost River Junior/Senior High School.

Lost River students, through class competitions, collected more than 1,000 pounds of food. Gold Dust Potatoes/Walker Farms donated 20 five-pound bags of potatoes and Martin’s Food Center donated 20 turkeys. Leadership students purchased dinner rolls and readied the boxes last week for delivery Nov. 20.

Leadership students also created handmade cards for each box to send a personal message on the Thanksgiving holiday.

Colten Wright, Lost River ASB (leadership) president, has been helping with the food boxes for the last four years.

“When the food is actually going to help families your community, it makes an impact,” he said. “Because it helps Malin and Merrill, it feels especially close to my heart.”

Lost River leadership students have been providing Thanksgiving food boxes for years. Jen Johnson, who advises leadership students, remembers collecting food for the project when she was a student at Lost River in the late 1980s.

The school also for the three decades has hosted a holiday-themed Honored Citizens Luncheon in December. Due to COVID-19, the school was forced to cancel the event this year, said Jamie Ongman, principal at Lost River Junior/Senior High School.

“For the first time in nearly 30 years we will not be able to host our honored citizens for lunch,” he said. “This is something the staff and students look forward to every year and has become a signature event here at Lost River. Although we cannot host our community members this year, we wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We will see you in 2021 when we resume our luncheon.”