18
Wednesday, April 6, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Ore. moves neediest to
front of line for college
photo by ErIN borLA
sisters elementary school students conducted a successful food drive.
Students raise 700 pounds of food
By erin Borla
Correspondent
Sisters Elementary School
students raised close 700
pounds of food during their
first-ever Peanut Butter and
Jelly Food Drive for the
Sisters Kiwanis Food Bank.
Kid-friendly foods were
brought into the school
Wednesday, March 9 through
Friday, March 18. Piles of
peanut butter, jelly, macaroni
and cheese, fruit cups and
more overflowed boxes on
the stage.
Students could be seen
piling items into each of the
boxes every day.
“Students and their fami-
lies were so generous,” said
a volunteer. “I remember one
day I was counting items and
a student laid down his back
pack and started pulling items
out to donate. There was more
and more… I don’t know how
his backpack held so many and
how he was able to carry it!”
Each day of the food drive
an announcement would go
out from Principal Becky
Stoughton about how many
items had been brought in
and what the total was. Easier
than tracking the pounds of
food at the school — volun-
teers counted the number of
items. Students had a goal of
500 different items by the end
of the drive.
Ten minutes before the
bell rang and students left
for spring break, Principal
Stoughton came over the PA
system and shared the good
news. Not only did the stu-
dents beat their goal of bring-
ing in more than 500 items
— they brought in 605 by the
time the final bell rang.
Community businesses
got in on the food drive as
well. Both Melvin’s Fir Street
Market and Ray’s Food Place
hosted drop-boxes during the
last week. 37 jars of peanut
butter and jelly that were pur-
chased by community mem-
bers and left at the stores were
picked up from both locations
and added to the final weight
at the food bank.
The Sisters Kiwanis Food
Bank is located at the cor-
ner of Main Avenue and Oak
Street, and accepts donations
throughout the year. The food
bank is open from 9 a.m. to 2
p.m. on Thursdays, and dona-
tions can be dropped off in the
donation box in front of the
food bank during off hours.
Larger donations should be
coordinated ahead of time.
Visit www.sisterskiwanis.org
for contact information.
“There are going to be a
lot of happy kids with full bel-
lies thanks to the students at
Sisters Elementary School,”
said Suzanne Carvlin, Sisters
Kiwanis Club President.
PORTLAND (AP) —
Oregon will begin offering
college grants to the state’s
low- and middle-income stu-
dents based on their level of
need.
That’s a change from the
former first-come, first-served
system.
Students who filled out
their request for financial
aid the soonest used to jump
to the front of the line pro-
vided they were Oregon resi-
dents with an annual family
income of less than $70,000,
said Bob Brew, director
of the Higher Education
Coordinating Commission’s
Office of Student Access and
Completion.
“Lower-income students
tended to apply later and not
get the money,” Brew told The
Oregonian on Friday. Once
the state money allocated to
the Oregon Opportunity Grant
had all been assigned, it was
gone.
State lawmakers tweaked
the system in 2015, adding
more money to the grant and
allowing the neediest students
to be first in line.
They increased the pro-
gram by nearly 24 percent for
the 2015-17 cycle, dedicating
$140.9 million to the program.
The expansion will allow an
additional 16,000 people to
receive grants, Brew said.
About 40,000 students
currently receive an Oregon
Opportunity Grant.
Lawmakers also approved
rules to guarantee the needi-
est students who apply for
the program receive preferen-
tial treatment when the state
distributes aid for upcoming
school year.
But some administra-
tors are concerned about the
impact of those rules, which
could mean some full-time
students who had been receiv-
ing a maximum of $2,250 in
state aid will no longer qual-
ify. “We want to make sure
those students aren’t further
disenfranchised in their path
to get a degree,” said Hans
Bernard, associate vice presi-
dent for state and community
affairs at the University of
Oregon.
Low-income students face
funding gaps even if they
qualify for the Federal Pell
Grant and the state program,
said Bernard.
SISTERS
GARAGE DOORS
Sales • Service • Installation
Life is like a
garage door; it has
its ups and downs.
Dale Lester
CCB#151832
541-815-1523
WHY ADVERTISE WITH A
COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER?
Community newspapers are read by a
majority of the community
67%
of adults read
community newspapers
each week
Most rbadbrs turn
to thbir community
nbwspapbr for nbws
bbforb turning to
othbr mbdia.
70%
of those readers
read most or all of
their paper
2013 Community Newspaper Readership Survey
Based on a nationwide telephone survey of adults in marcets served by newspapers of 15,000
or less circulation, NNA examined the relationship between Main Street America and its newspapers.
Center for Advanced Social Research | Reynolds Journalism Institute | The Missouri School of Journalism