Presentation Church’s ministry to the hungry in Maplewood just got a big boost, thanks to an 8-year old faith-formation student and the U.S. Postal Service.
Six Postal Service trucks pulled up to the parish school May 10 to deliver bags of food they had collected that morning during the U.S. Postal Service’s nationwide Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive.
Alexis Lamprecht volunteered to be a food drive ambassador at the request of her great-aunt, Pam Donato, who serves as the National Association of Letter Carriers director of community services in Washington, D.C.
“My aunt asked me to do this and I really wanted to,” Lamprecht said.
As an ambassador, she worked to get the word out about the food drive and helped carry, unpack and organize the food. She even made cookies and bars for her volunteers.
Lamprecht, a second-grader at Oakdale Elementary School, has been concerned about others going hungry for a long time. “Last year, she asked for food items instead of birthday gifts and collected 164 items,” said Benedictine Sister Kathleen Rademacher, the parish faith formation director. “She is an extraordinary child.”
“Sometimes, if I don’t finish my food, I think about others that are going hungry,” Lamprecht said. Helping like this makes her feel really good, she added.
There will be more families in need of food during the summer months because kids aren’t getting lunch at school. This comes just in time, Sister Kathleen said.
“I know its a band-aid — they call charity a band-aid — but we need band-aids too,” she said.
“Lexi is a shining example of a kid with will and what they can accomplish,” said Dan Garhofer, a representative from the National Association of Letter Carriers Local 28. “It was an honor for us to help her.”