Cans for Good: Lower and Intermediate School Civics Project Feeds Chicago Families

The Lower and Intermediate School aluminum can collection was a huge success!

For the Lower and Intermediate School civics program, students gathered by grade level in the fall to discuss how and why we vote. Students shared their knowledge and learned about the voting process. Then they voted. Each student cast a ballot for the theme of the spring service project. After the votes were tallied, the themes were community and environment.

To connect the themes, we partnered with the Pilsen Food Pantry, which provides food and household items for the community. One of the ways they raise funds is through aluminum can collection. By collecting cans, we kept them out of landfills and in the recycling system while helping to provide food for our Chicago neighbors.

During the entire spring session of school, students made collection boxes and posters and placed them around the school. Students talked to their families and started can collections at home. Throughout the second half of the school year, classes came to the library to sort and count the cans, and parent/guardian volunteers delivered the cans to the Pilsen Food Pantry.

We hosted the final can count on May 6, and the final count is in: 5,637 cans were collected, providing 1,090 pounds of food at the Pilsen Food Pantry!

Thank you to all the students for their amazing work on this project, the parent/guardian volunteers and the families that collected cans! The Pilsen Food Pantry collects cans year-round to support their food pantry.

To learn more, visit the Pilsen Food Pantry website.

Click here for photos.