Last week, students of The King’s Academy (TKA) in Sunnyvale kicked off the season of giving, coming into school early in the morning to make the holidays brighter for local residents in need.
About 100 TKA middle school students packed 3,000 bags of food and hygiene kits that were donated to local social service agencies, including Sunnyvale Community Services, Downtown Streets Team, Cops Care Cancer Foundation, Martha’s Kitchen and West Valley Community Services.
The service project was a joint effort by TKA, the Chick-fil-A Leader Academy, and Convoy of Hope. Chick-fil-A has sponsored the holiday meal program for more than 10 years throughout the U.S., packing millions of meals every year.
“We really want to empower local communities to do their own [charitable] events,” said Steve Pulis, Vice President, Convoy of Hope Education. The nonprofit Convoy of Hope provides both rapid disaster relief and long term economic empowerment.
“We provide the groceries, show them how to set up, how to make connections with local charities,” he continued. “We teach them best practices, safety and even how to promote the event with fellow students.
Last week’s event “couldn’t have been better,” said Pulis. “Students showed up energetic and jumped right in and helped us while we were finishing up some of the setup. They worked hard, but had fun. They took ownership of the event and packed 3,000 bags, very quickly and efficiently.”
Last week’s food donation came about through what TKA spiritual life staffer Bryson Bridges described as a “long, unexpected process” that began when Sunnyvale Chick-Fil-A franchisee (CFA) owner Arnold Chong approached the school about launching a middle school Leader Academy program. The Leader program teaches students how to design, organize and execute community service programs in their own communities.
“Normally they only do it with 20 or 30 [high school] students,” said Bridges. “But we decided, let’s just see how many kids are interested. We had almost 200 signups of sixth, seventh and eighth graders. Now we have the largest Leadership Academy program running in the country.”
The project isn’t only about food. Providing cleaning supplies and other household and personal necessities is also about restoring people’s sense of agency in their own lives.
“One of the partners picking up the items [told me] she had a family member who’s nearly homeless, in a poor situation,” said Bridges. “She said how the cleaning supplies bring dignity. Even if people are poor they don’t want to live in dirty environments, so it restores human dignity.”
The middle school Leader Academy was a pilot program for Chick-Fil-A’s high school Leader program.
“When I heard about the middle school pilot program, I thought, this is an amazing thing,” said Arnold Chong. “I feel like the middle schoolers are hungry for something, and [unlike high school students] they have the bandwidth.
“There was an overwhelming response,” he continued. “These students are like an underserved community, because they tend to get overlooked. This was a great opportunity. It’s a turnkey program, it costs the school nothing, and my son was going to school there. It was a no-brainer.”
It isn’t only the recipients of the groceries who benefit from the project. Students gain self-confidence from being able to help their own community.
“I learned a lot through the program,” said student Zachary Chong. “I learned what a leader is, and how you can be a good leader. I felt really proud that we were helping people.”
The CFA Leader Academy is open to any school.
