Prairie Crest fourth-grader organizes schoolwide food drive

CEDAR RAPIDS - Kendal Erger was watching television recently when a commercial about childhood hunger aired.

'At the end it said, ‘how can you help,' and I started thinking of ways I could help,” said Kendal, a fourth-grader at Prairie Crest Elementary in Cedar Rapids. 'I kind of thought it would be a good Christmas present if I could give these kids food for Christmas.”

Kendal decided she would ask friends and family members to donate food to those in need in the community. She created an iMovie on her computer, and with the help of some of her friends, made up fliers.

Her efforts impressed her dad, Sam, who also asked people at work at Holmes Murphy in Cedar Rapids to contribute. He ended up with two large boxes.

When his daughter told him her idea, Sam Erger said, 'I was kind of speechless. It's amazing for a 10-year-old to come up with this and do this.”

After asking her classmates to contribute, Kendal's food drive continued to snowball. Her teacher, Kylee Campbell, mentioned Kendal's food drive to the other fourth grade teachers, who asked to get involved as well. Campbell also told Prairie Crest's principal, Laura Medberry.

'We were going to do a food drive in the spring, but I thought this was a perfect opportunity” to do another one schoolwide, Medberry said. 'I gave her a shot to do it on her own.”

Kendal said she was surprised to learn that everyone at school wanted to take part in the food drive.

'I was excited because it gave me an opportunity to collect more food for kids,” she said.

Kendal said she was shocked with how much she ended up collecting: 1,453 types of food, including macaroni and cheese, canned goods, peanut butter, cereal and pasta.

Medberry said Kendal did such a 'fabulous job” that she would let Kendal lead the planned schoolwide food drive in the spring.