Rock Hill students aim to create food bank fund for Salvation Army

Seven freshmen at Rock Hill’s Westminster Catawba Christian School have embarked on a quest to feed hungry children in the summer - not just this summer, but for many to come.

An up-to 30-hour Push Beyond charity bike ride through York County Friday and Saturday was the first of several events students planned to raise thousands of dollars.

Their goal over the next several years is to generate enough money for an endowment that will be used to stock the Rock Hill Salvation Army’s food pantry during the summer, when donations are down.

“We just kind of saw the need for it,” said Joel Haley, 14.

During a visit to the agency’s food pantry last summer, Haley said, he and six friends saw nearly bare shelves. He said they felt led by God to launch a project they call Pantry Works.

The other six students are Mattingly Nord, Spencer Holladay, Seth Russo, Max Swofford, Brennan Wiley and Luke Hancock.

The weekend charity bike ride, which drew around 25 cyclists who were asked to collect pledges for the food pantry project, was led by Mattingly’s father, ultra cyclist Marshall Nord of York.

Marhsall Nord is training for the 2016 Race Across America, or RAAM, a 3,004-mile, 12-day charity bike race from Oceanside, Calif., to Annapolis, Md.

Nord said people can sponsor his solo ride in RAAM, which begins June 14. He said the proceeds for his Cycle Out Hunger charity ride between January and July will go to the Salvation Army food pantry project.

“The idea is to push beyond,” Nord said Friday, before starting his 30-hour, 407-mile ride at the SBR Bike Shope on White Street in downtown Rock Hill, which sponsored the Push Beyond ride.

“We are trying to engage the community to push beyond themselves through cycling and to benefit the food pantry,” said Nord.

Nord said his Race Across America ride has already generated nearly $10,000 in donations for the food pantry project. He is asking donors to contribute one cent per mile, or about $30 for his ride.

On Friday and Saturday, other riders were invited to join Nord for all or parts of the Push Beyond ride over York County bike trails. The ride included six loops past the downtown bike shop, where Nord stopped briefly to pick up more riders.

Spencer Holladay’s mother, Lora Holladay, also a Salvation Army board member, said the idea for the endowment began last summer, when the students raised nearly $3,000 for the food pantry in a yard sale.

Spencer Holladay said last year’s yard sale was done to fulfill the boys’ 60-hour community service graduation requirement. But after they were done, he said, they wanted to do more.

“You can’t really fix everything in 60 hours,” Spencer said. “There are still people that need help.”

Lora Holladay said she made some suggestions about what else the boys could do. When they visited the food pantry over the summer and saw bare shelves, she said, they chose to tackle that problem.

“There’s a lot of hunger, and we all wanted to help out, so we got together and decided to do something about it,” said Seth, 14.

Holladay said families need more food in the summer because children on free- and reduced-price school lunches don’t get those meals.

The agency’s food pantry “really goes down to slim pickings in the summer,” Holladay said. “And that’s when the need is up.”

Lora Holladay said the boys’ planned fundraisers includ a May 7 yard sale. An eventual endowment would generate enough interest for food pantry purchases each summer, she said.

“They want to work all through high school, and work on this every summer,” Holladay said. “By the time they graduate, hopefully the fund would be healthy enough to generate that.”

She said the boys also wanted to provide healthier food for food pantry patrons. They plan to work with grocery stores and local farms over the summer, she said, picking up healthy food items and bringing them to the food pantry several days a week.

Mattingly Nord, 14, said the boys chose the food pantry project because they did not believe the community is aware of the level of need.

“We really could have chosen anything,” Mattingly said. “But we saw the need in our community. And we just didn’t think that was right.”

This story was originally published April 23, 2016 at 4:36 PM with the headline "Rock Hill students aim to create food bank fund for Salvation Army."