Teachers: What's up with canned food drives as if salaries

I hear ya! I am a teacher in an independent school and they have us donating for everything, teachers included. I have a "give to the school" request on my desk right now (I am at home on break haha) a donation of $900 would be appreciated. Do you know how many DAYS (weeks) it would take for me to clear that in order to give. After I donated toys and food for the community center and also for the homeless. I FEEL YOUR PAIN! Then we get hit up each time we go shopping this time of year all added to what we all give personally. It makes giving not feel as good as it used to.

As others have said, you need to send a letter, make a call or talk directly to the principal with your concerns. I don't think making kids take a test because they didn't bring canned goods in, is ok at all. Incentives are one thing, but punishment is another!

you're joking right??

To me this takes incentives too far.

For my part I teach kids who need food. They quietly receive Mac and cheese and granola bars in their backpacks on fridays so they will have food to eat on the weekend. I keep a snack pantry for them. They don’t have the same opportunity to bring in food to a food drive that my wealthy students do. This feels like punishment to those kids when they can’t reach the incentive.

So we stopped incentivizing all this stuff, PTA membership, box tops, all of it because it reinforces that big divide between haves and have-nots in our school. We do have a positive behavior program that has incentives.

In our family we have the means to participate when there’s a food drive so we do.. but I feel like pressure to participate just isn’t right. I know who those kids are who can’t do it and I want them to feel like school is a haven for them.

I mean, no, no ones salary depends on this but the pressure feels like a lot sometimes.

Was this a test that was already scheduled? If so, I see it along the lines of an A in a class or perfect attendance lets you skip finals in some schools.

But if this test is a punishment purely scheduled for the convenience of extorting the parents (because it IS the parents), then that is an issue.

I would email the teacher first to clarify what was on the board about donating (movie vs. test). If the teacher verifies this was her plan, I would forward the email to the principal as information only and that in your opinion this is not the way to encourage community service.

I'm wondering if maybe there is a competition going on between classes for most food brought in? When my kids were in elementary there was often a contest between classes a couple of times a year for the Box Tops for Education. The contest helped kids remember to bring box tops from home and the teachers had fun with it too. You would be shocked at how many more box tops came in when there was a competition between classes versus when we just asked kids to bring them in.

That said, donations for charitable causes were never a competition because many families cannot afford to donate, in fact some of the families would probably receive some of the donations! I think it is terrible to require it for any reason and it takes all the good feelings away that you might have from donating.

Right. I could see my nephew bringing a case of soup and checking donations at the door.

The class probably gets a pizza party if the th bring the most.

How does your child feel about it? Has he noticed the food drive being really really important? Is he talking about it? Ask him why he thinks it is such a big deal.

I used to be on the PTA at my kids elementary school. The teacher who brought in the most cans would gain an ice cream party for her class. The teacher also may have gained a gift card for a nice amount (all prizes donated). I don’t know why they bothered. Kindergarten always won.

I would definitely talk to the teacher and principal. Not everyone can bring in a can of food. Think of how that kid feels if they were the one who’s parents can’t afford it or say no. Let’s face it, we are all getting bombarded right now with donation requests. I’m all for donating but when these tactics are done it makes me mad.

Are they sure allthe kids can afford to bring in canned food?

it's not ok, how do you think kids whose families can't afford to donate a can feel about it? What if they know their family is the recipient of food from a food bank. It's one thing to make the request, but when it gets into 'not everyone brought a can' territory, that's not ok. It could cause backlash or bullying toward those kids who couldn't bring one and it is downright humiliating to them.

I think it would be good for someone to bring up what a bad practice it has become.

I couldn't agree more about charity should be from the heart. 

However, in just about every job I have ever had, there was always pressure to donate to certain charities, especially the United Way.  I like to pick and chose the charities I give to, and I like to do it anonymously.  

Having said that, I don't think it's any big deal to have a friendly competition over a canned food drive, but I do think it's a little much for a teacher to punish his/her class for not having 100% participation.