The drive, which took place this month, collected food at schools throughout Ventura to serve needy families during the holidays. Supported by Ventura Unified staff and students, this year’s collection will help a total of 380 families.

In order to ensure families received a variety of different food, each school was assigned a specific type of food to collect. This year Foothill was assigned dry breads and dessert items.

“All of the generated foodstuffs make their way to a sorting team who creates a basket. This basket contains all the different items each school in Ventura collected,” Koch said.

On December 16 and 17, staff, students and community members came together to help sort and box the collected food at Balboa Middle School.

Dr. Trudy T. Arriaga, Ventura Unified’s superintendent, has been the Cheers for Children Chairperson for 24 years. She attended the sorting and said she loved seeing students caring about others and giving up their time to come help the community.

“I feel good that 380 families in our district are going to have a really nice holiday meal,” Arriaga said. 

Sophomore Veronica Mellring was one of the many that helped out on Friday.

“I like how there is a lot of people who are coming together to help the community.” Mellring said.

But even after sorting and boxing, there is still work to be done. On Christmas Eve, baskets will be distributed to families in Ventura. Anybody interested in helping is invited to meet outside Balboa’s cafeteria to help with the delivery process.