Dominican gathers more than its lion’s share of food

St. Mary’s Dominican High School collected 20,228 cans of food during its annual, one-week food drive for Second Harvest Food Bank. That total equates to 19,378 pounds of food, enough for 16,000 meals

 for needy families across south Louisiana.

Students participated in the school’s “Lion King-themed” canned food competition, with religion teachers spearheading teams named after characters in the musical: Teams Pumbaa, Rafiki, Nala, Zazu, Timon, Simba and Mufasa. Daily updates of total cans collected by these characters kept the competition lively.

This was the 18th year for Dominican’s annual food drive, the largest school food drive in the Greater New Orleans area, said communications director Sandra Cordray.

Since 2011, Dominican has donated 119,508 pounds of food to Second Harvest, which serves a network of agencies across the 23 parishes of south Louisiana.