NEWPORT BEACH : Students Share Bounty With Others

The students at Andersen Elementary School, who live in luxurious homes in Harbor View Hills and wear designer clothes, are learning to share their good fortune by helping to feed less fortunate children at a Santa Ana school.

More than 60 families of children attending Monte Vista Elementary School in West Central Santa Ana, where 90% of the students are eligible for the free lunch program, received turkey and other Thanksgiving fixings, which their families prepared to celebrate the holiday.

“They don’t have as much as we do,” Aaron Gruber, 11, said about the Monte Vista students.

Fellow sixth-grader Sarah Weiland, whose mother, Denise Weiland, started the annual food-drive program three years ago, echoed Gruber’s sentiment.

“We have lots of good things to be thankful for like food, toys and clothing, and we take our lives for granted. We don’t really think that there are poor people right in the next city,” she said.

But “we’re learning that it’s good to help other people who are less fortunate than you,” said Adam Horowitz, 11.

Kindergartners collected baby food, first-graders collected flour and second- through sixth-graders gathered beans, rice, canned vegetables, potatoes and juice.

In addition to the side dishes, students donated $1 to buy the turkeys and hams.

Both sides benefit, said Denise Weiland.

“This teaches our children how good it feels to give and serve others because, living in such an affluent community, they’re so used to receiving everything they want. I hope it makes the kids help for the rest of their lives.”

Assistant Principal Jan Voukather of Monte Vista said many of the students at his school live in overcrowded, low-income housing.

“We’re in one of the hardest-hit barrios in Santa Ana,” Voukather said. “Monte Vista serves a very low socioeconomic group. So for our children, who certainly do not have the same gifts and economics as the children at Andersen, the meals give them an opportunity to experience that other people care about them.”

At Christmastime, Andersen students will again take up a collection of food and add clothes and toys for the Monte Vista students.

The program is not unique to Newport Beach. Other schools in cities such as Laguna Niguel, Irvine and Costa Mesa are also running separate campaigns to collect food to help the needy.

Newport-Harbor High School in Newport Beach and Woodbridge High School in Irvine, for example, are collecting food, gifts and money to help Share Our Selves, an organization that provides help to needy families, during the holidays.