J.A.G.S. Team Up To Beat Hunger

by Sofia Stocco - St. Joseph's Catholic HS

Hogwarts isn’t the only school to have four houses and give a huge Thanksgiving feast! St. Joseph’s Catholic High School in Barrie is proud to be in their second year of house divisions and teaming up within the school for some friendly competition for good causes. Their latest mission was seeing which J.A.G.S house could donate the most to the Barrie Food Bank and achieve the highest score, and the results were astounding with a total of 3628 items donated and points!

Last year, the St. Joe’s leadership program introduced the concept of J.A.G.S houses, which were named after the school’s mascot of jaguars. J.A.G.S is an acronym for the four house names; the Joe’s, the Angels, the Gladiators, and the Saints. Students voted on house names last year, and were sorted randomly into each house to represent for the rest of their high school career. As every new generation of grade nine students enters our school community, they will be sorted into their prospective house to compete for the house cup and winner’s breakfast at the end of the year!

To rack up points, different charity events are held, such as paid dress down days for Barrie’s Hospice and Terry Fox foundations. The more generous and spirited the house, the more points they get! Points are recorded in bars in the school’s cafetorium for all to keep track of. Their latest challenge was bringing in non-perishable food items to the school and dropping them off in their house’s bin to be donated to the Barrie Food Bank.

Mrs. Kubica, the school chaplain and coordinator of the Thanksgiving food drive, explained the importance of giving back, especially during the Thanksgiving season. “Jesus calls us to love the Lord and thy neighbour,” she said when asked why we do these events, “and by serving others we serve God.”

Each class was given a list of the point values of different food items, with the containers with a higher volume and the more needed food items having higher values. Many teachers, also sorted into houses, gave further incentive to donate, such as no homework for a night or a bonus mark on a quiz if a certain number of items were brought in.

The amount of effort and spirit shown was outstanding! The Joe’s brought in 554 items, Gladiators 696, Saints 847 and Angels topped them all with 1531, leading to a remarkable total of 3628!

Mrs. Kubica spoke about the reaction of the Barrie Food Bank in response to such a literal truckload of food items that were donated. “The Barrie food bank was very thankful for our donations as their shelves at that time were very empty, and as always St. Joes’ students stepped up and rocked!”