Fed with the Spirit, they feed others

Published 9:57 pm Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Thirteen-year-old Henry Luzzatto walked up and down the streets of Riverview Monday evening knocking on doors.

His mission was to find canned goods and non-perishable food items that he and his team could donate to Kids’ Café.

“We’re looking for something bigger than a paper clip, but better than sardines,” Luzzatto told residents.

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Team leader Katie Lawrence led a group of three teenagers on their walk Monday evening as part of a group project tied to their vacation Bible school, Trekking with the Spirit. The school is a conglomeration of children from four area churches: Suffolk Christian, Suffolk Presbyterian, St. Paul’s Episcopal and West End Baptist Church.

“This team was really pushing to get 100 cans and, with the promise of some cash donations, they could get very close,” Lawrence said.

The Kids’ Café offers food items to at-risk children in Suffolk through the Boys and Girls Club. During the school year, the organization provides these children meals in the evening, while they provide lunches during the summer.

The food collected by Lawrence’s team and two others from the vacation Bible school, will be put into food bags given to children in the coming days.

“We are going to spend Wednesday night putting the food into bags,” Lawrence said.

The three groups collected a total of more than 140 items and still have some cash donations and pledges to collect over the coming days.

Lawrence said anyone wishing to make a donation to the program — either canned food or cash donations — can do so by calling director Cindy Robinson at 377-8904.

She also added area residents could take part in Thursday evening’s dessert auction at 6:30 p.m. at West End Baptist Church. Proceeds from the auction will go to the Kids’ Café initiative.