Students from Sunset View Elementary School in Point Loma were basking in achievement Thursday, April 19.
The youngsters marched around their playground shouting, “Si, se puede!,” (“Yes, we can!”), as they held up posters and signs commemorating the work of the late Mexican farm workers union organizer Cesar E. Chavez.
The schoolwide event was slated to celebrate Sunset View’s first-place achievement in the recent Angel’s Depot food drive, after students collected the most food items among 20 schools in the San Diego and Vista Unified school districts.
The drive was part of the school’s Cesar E. Chavez Service Learning Club project for the year, according to Monica Valencia, Sunset View Elementary Spanish teacher.
The school collected 2,250 boxes of macaroni and cheese, crackers, oatmeal and raisins for the Angel’s Depot drive during the week of March 22.
The drive netted a week’s worth of nonperishable breakfast, lunch and dinner items for elderly citizens across San Diego County, said Mimi Askew, community resource coordinator.
Askew presented the Caring Hearts and Helping Hands Award trophy to Sunset View students in honor of their accomplishment.
The students out-collected their closest competitors, who gathered 1,695 items and 822 items, respectively, Askew said.
Ironically, Sunset View is the smallest of the participating schools, Askew said.
“I didn’t quite know what to expect today, but I wanted to tell you guys that I’m very impressed with what you’ve done,” Askew told the students.
During the award ceremony, students sat quietly, though impatiently at times, as their Cesar E. Chavez Service Learning Club representatives stood in front of the student body and spoke of the different service club activities conducted throughout the school year.
They also talked about the application of the values instilled in them as part of the Learning Club.
The service club officers offered examples from Chavez’ life, as well as their own lives, to illustrate values like sacrifice, respect for life, innovation, imagination, service to others and the goal of helping the most needy.
Throughout the year, club members officers participate in activities that promote leadership and community building, Valencia said.
In addition to the Angel’s Depot food drive, students have a campus vegetable garden that they tend, said parent volunteer Sandy Baranski.
The students plant an array of vegetables, including beets, Brussells sprouts and carrots. They also learn integrated pesticide control, which uses the naturally occurring properties of the garden vegetables ” in combination with other plant flowers ” to keep pests under control, Baranski said.
The project culminates in a farmer’s market, where students sell their harvest in front of the school on the Friday following the harvest, she said.
The money from the garden goes back into the service club to help fund future projects, Valencia said.
The garden serves as a reminder of Chavez’ efforts to organize migrant farm workers during the late 1960s, said Carlos LeGerrete, state coordinator for the Cesar E. Chavez Club.
He reminded students of how their efforts connect to the farm workers’ strike for better working conditions in 1966, he said.
“During that strike, the first food that the strikers received came from exactly what you did here. It came from donated food,” he said.
The ceremony ended in song as students held hands and sang “De Colores,” a religious Mexican folksong about springtime.
There are about 12 elementary and middle schools in San Diego County and Imperial Valley schools participating in the service club program, LeGerrette said. The service clubs are hosted and promoted by the teachers of the World Languages Program at Sunset View Elementary, Valencia said. For a half-hour each day and one hour every other Thursday, students visit world language teachers Ruth Haller, Monica Valencia and Darlene Strong. The women teach students to speak and read in Spanish, Haller said. Currently, Spanish is the only language in the program.
Valencia serves a moderator for the Learning Club, in which members vote on officers, set agendas and organize service projects, she said. This year’s Angel’s Depot food-drive project helped bring more than 9,000 nonperishable food items from the 20 participating schools in the San Diego and Vista school districts, Askew said.
The food helps feed elderly citizens who live at or below the poverty line, said Susan Hall, founder of The Angel’s Depot.