Another successful Operation Full Bellies for Sultan High

Sherry Knox’s American Sign Language students made space for more than 13,000 prepared food items in the classroom this spring at Sultan High School.

The stockpile grew as peers vied to collect the most donations for the Operation Full Bellies annual food drive May 5-18. Volunteers gathered the cache for the U.S. National Guard on Friday, May 19.

“It became hard to teach,” Knox said with a laugh.

Full Bellies director Kelly Clifton said she was in awe of the inventory.

Every week, 153 children from Sultan to Skykomish are fed six meals by Operation Full Bellies. More than 900 meals and snacks are delivered or picked up each week. About 63 of those kids receive home deliveries — the ones “who have no other option,” she said.

The Sky Valley Community Outreach program, which started about eight years ago, does not receive any supplemental funding, Clifton said, and is entirely dependent on community donations.

“I couldn’t feed these kids without their (the students’) help — I just couldn’t,” Clifton said.

Knox’s students have been involved in volunteerism in various ways for many years, her classes connecting with Clifton about four years ago. She said the amount of food her kids have been able to collect has doubled almost every year.

“The students are the decision-makers here — this is their thing,” Knox said.

For two weeks each spring students in each grade from her five different class periods sit for hours outside various establishments in the Sky Valley and Monroe during the evening to ask the public for donations.

Knox’s teaching assistant and Sultan senior Myah Vellek has helped out since she and her peers started working with Clifton. This year she acted as a supervisor, and volunteered to sit outside stores in Monroe with the younger students that were unable to go alone.

“I like help out as much as possible. I enjoy helping people who can’t seem to help themselves — it makes me feel good,” she said. “I love to spread positivity.”

Fellow senior Julia Baird was one of her volunteer partners. Baird secured 569 items, the fourth highest amount collected by a student this year. She said she was excited to be a part of the program because she received meals from Full Bellies years ago.

“I looked forward to this food every weekend,” she said.