Brunswick Middle School assists Feeding Medina County

BRUNSWICK — Brunswick Middle School's food drive in support of Feeding Medina County was a tremendous success. FMC was shocked to discover that almost 5,000 items were donated. Sarah Sponsler, organizer of the event and BMS Orchestra director, was also blown away by the determination and hard work of the students. Katy Fuerst is the Executive Director of Feeding Medina County. Her job entails a little bit of everything, from working with the Board of Directors, overseeing fundraising, getting hands-on support at food distributions, and finding new ways to achieve FMC's mission. The mission of Feeding Medina County is to make sure so no one goes to bed hungry. They help everyone around Medina County including children, seniors, disabled adults, people in recovery from drugs & alcohol, and anyone else who is at risk of food insecurity. Fuerst and Sponsler both agree that this food drive wouldn't have been possible without the help of the BMS community. Fuerst explained how the food donated is perfect for walk-in clients, and that the amount donated was fantastic. Feeding Medina County serves almost 3,000 people each month. The food collected by Brunswick Middle School helps FMC to achieve their mission, because it takes the whole community to support the work that FMC does. "Food insecurity in Medina County is often hidden, but it exists," Fuerst said. "It is going to take all of us coming together to end hunger in our community. If you aren't involved with Feeding Medina County yet, there are all kinds of ways that you can take action with us." Feeding Medina County loves to see new faces volunteering at their distributions. People can go on their website, www.feedingmedinacounty.org, and click on the "get involved" tab to sign up to be a volunteer. They can also make donations online, or contact them to set up a food drive of their own. Sponsler is also very proud of the BMS community for stepping up and Feeding Medina County in such a short amount of time. The school's PRIDE student council was a big help to making this food drive such a success. PRIDE student council made donation boxes for each team at BMS (15 teams) and posters to hang around the school. Sponsler also believes that the reward for the highest collecting teams played a huge role in how much food they collected. The team with the highest donations from each grade level were able to see Shrek Jr. the Musical, put on by Brunswick Middle School's Drama Club. "I am proud of our BMS community for stepping up and donating all this food," said Sponsler. "Very impressive." In total, the Middle School donated 4,671 items. These donations are set to help thousands of people around Medina County. Anderson Mitchell, an eighth-grade Brunswick Middle School, is one of over fifty student "backpack journalists" (grades 6-12) in the award-winning BEAT Video Program. The program is sponsored by Scene75 (www.scene75.com), Plum Creek Assisted Living Community, Baskets Galore, Medina County Women's Endowment Fund, Medina County Community Fund, Brunswick University Center, Brunswick Eagles 3505, 100+ Women Who Care Medina, and the Brunswick Rotary Club. Go to https://www.bcsoh.org/domain/1154 to learn more about the Program, or visit https://thebeat.viebit.com to view videos produced by the students.