Written by: Ainsley Hall and published in The Martinsburg Journal on March 4, 2025, link to the article HERE.
Inwood Primary School recently finished its 17th annual food drive.
After collecting over 1,500 items throughout February, the school will be donating it all to CCAP Loaves & Fishes in Martinsburg to help feed those in need.
The food drive began when Janet Kawalek wanted to find a way for students to give back to the community. Kawalek used to volunteer regularly at a local food bank, but when she started working full-time as the secretary at Inwood Primary School, she no longer had the time.
That didn’t stop her from finding another way to help out. For a few years, there were several different people who organized food drives at the school, but when no one else was able to do it, Kawalek jumped at the opportunity.
The food drive took place throughout the month of February. Classes competed to see who can collect the most items. The winning class earned a special pizza party to celebrate. Parents also participated in the friendly competition, donating canned foods and other non-perishables to help their child’s class.
Though the competition is fun and helps motivate the students, the drive still centers on helping others. Kawalek believes it’s important to teach students at a young age to give what they can and support their community whenever possible.
“It’s important to give back at any age — whether it’s giving some money to Santa Claus outside the store or bringing some items in for the food drive,” Kawalek said. “We really want to teach the kids to give what they can.”
“It’s also about the community need,” Principal Ryan Ott added. “We want to show these kids that they are a part of the bigger community. There are needs throughout our area, and helping others will help make the community stronger.”
This year, Anna Hill-Dobbins’ first-grade class won first place in the competition, collecting 512 items. The school collected 1,500 items in total, with only 155 students enrolled in the school.
At the end of the drive, a group from CCAP Loaves & Fishes comes to collect the food, which it will distribute. Kawalek shared that the first year she organized the food drive, she planned to take the food by herself, but the school collected so much, she wasn’t able to do it alone. Since then, CCAP has come to collect it itself.
Though the school didn’t collect as much as it had done in the past, it was still eager to get involved and give what it could to help people in need. This small school community project is a great way to build the school community, while also supporting families throughout Berkeley County.