Merriman Park students, teachers and staff collect for Reverse Food Truck

Merriman Park students, teachers and staff collect for Reverse Food Truck

Students at several Lake Highlands area schools have been busy thinking of food. No, they haven’t been hanging out at Sonic or driving thru Taco Bell. They’ve been collecting items from their neighbors for the Reverse Food Truck.

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Reverse Food Truck, an outreach of NorthPark Presbyterian Church, works to reduce food insecurity in Dallas by collecting donations – both non-perishable and monetary – for Vickery Meadow Food Pantry. Instead of serving food, the Reverse Food Truck is a kind of “food drive on wheels.” In its first five months alone – August through December of 2014 – it collected almost $6,000 and almost 5,000 pounds of food.

“Giving helps students develop many important character traits that will stay with them the rest of their lives and will positively impact the world around them,” says Philip Henderson, principal at Moss Haven Elementary, where 550 pounds of food was collected by the Beta Club. “It is evident that our students want to have a positive impact, not only on our community, but those in our country and around that world. I am proud to be the principal at Moss Haven Elementary.”

“I thought it was important for our school to come together and give back to the community that so actively supports us,” explains Merriman Park Elementary Principal Katie Kirkpatrick, who initiated a new outreach called #MPEserves. “We know that when kids come to school hungry, learning is the last thing on their mind. There is so much need right here in the Lake Highlands area, and I think we often forget how many people are unable to provide basics, such as food, for their family.”

MPE collected 1,500 pounds of food and participated in several other projects as part of #MPEserves.

At Lake Highlands High School, librarian Ashlee Davis knows she has to be creative. As the end of the year approaches, she finds that books and other materials are overdue and fines are mounting. She hates to be “the bad guy.”

Davis collected 400 pounds of food by permitting canned food to cover library fines. She said the kids loved it, and she plans to continue the program next year.

If you’d like to support Reverse Food Truck, you may contact LH resident Ellen Mata, NorthPark Presbyterian’s Director of Missions at emata@northparkpres.org or follow Reverse Food Truck on Facebook or Twitter. They’ll come to your party or business, and they’ll be at Dave & Buster’s this Saturday from 2-6.

Moss Haven students

Moss Haven students

Lake Highlands High School students with librarian Ashlee Davis

Lake Highlands High School students with librarian Ashlee Davis