Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Inspire Academy’s new principal, Bo Oates, is leading the Inspired 2 Serve Food Pantry, a service project effort in partnership with his students from the Career Tech campus.

The Iron Bowl Food Drive is hosted from November 1 through November 22 and will serve the LaFayette community ahead of the holiday season with items like green beans, corn, cranberry sauce and boxed stuffing.

Chambers County School District is requesting donations from the community for the Auburn versus Alabama drive. 

The food pantry project began in response to statistics that more than nine percent of the LaFayette population lives in poverty according to a U.S. Census report. 

Inspire Academy students from hospitality and tourism, agriculture, business and marketing take part in service learning projects in the food pantry program. Culinary and hospitality students also work on the project.

In September 2023, school district employees met with Cheryl Myers, the director of the Christian Service Center in Lanett which operates a food pantry for the county, to discuss how the school’s food pantry can work with the community.

The district made an advisory committee with representatives from Chambers County Department of Human Resources, East Alabama Food Bank, LaFayette Rotary Club, Auburn University Outreach, Equitable Neighborhoods Initiative, Circle of Care, Heart of America and the city of LaFayette.

Some of the food items that are requested include:

Peanut butter

Jelly

Crackers

Canned tuna or chicken

Canned vegetables

Canned soup

Canned fruit

Cereal

Pasta

Granola and fruit bars