School kids get after giving

AUSTIN (KXAN) - There were more than 250 of them gathered in the South Austin parking lot of the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas.

Hip hop blared from loudspeakers but could hardly be heard over the din of excited young voices celebrating the spirit of giving.

"By donating all the foods and coats, people are going to be happier and they're going to have food and they're going to be warm all winter instead of shivering under bridge and things like that," said Riley Pruden, 10, from Summitt Elementary School.

Riley was capping off a month long collection drive with a goal of collecting some 50,000 pounds of food and 2,000 coats to distribute to children and families in Central Texas who are facing a tough holiday season. Before they launched into the task of transferring thousands of cans of food from storage pods onto food bank pallets, they gathered around Linda Brucker, the director of A Legacy of Giving. The organization brings lessons about giving to school kids by actually integrating them into the curriculum.

"You know, we get math and we get social studies and we get geometry; we get all these great lessons in our schools," said Brucker. "But in the last two years, you guys are getting life lessons. Each and every one of you could tell me what philanthropy is."

Putting that statement to the test, a reporter approached Katie Gibson, 14, from Trinity Episcopal School with a request: "Define philanthropy for me."

"I think it's just doing something that would help somebody else," Katie said.

Nearby, Alli Goss, 10, from Summitt Elementary School gave it a shot. "It means giving your time and your treasure and your talent to other people in need," she said.

Putting that into action, several dozen kids formed a human chain and began passing donated coats, one at a time, from collection bins to waiting trucks from a local cleaning company. The coats will get a thorough cleaning and then be handed out to the coat-less.

Watching from the side of the parking lot, Brucker ventures a prediction: "Twelve years from now, we'll have our first graduates," she said. "What will those kids be like? I think they're going to have a natural burning and they're going to have found their passion about how they can make a difference in the world."

Between a pod and a pallet, students are still transferring canned food. Their teacher rears back and hollers a question: "Who cares?"

"We care," comes the reply from a dozen kids.