Annandale parents raise $15,000 for needy families

A Safeway employee with a receipt for gift cards purchased by the Mason Crest PTO.

After the pandemic shut down local schools in March, a group of parents at Mason Crest Elementary School in Annandale raised a total of nearly $15,000 to help the school’s large number of students from lower-income households struggling with food insecurity. 

The Mason Crest Parent Teachers Organization launched a fundraising campaign asking parents, teachers, and staff members to contribute. That effort initially netted some $5,800 which they used to purchase $20 and $25 Safeway gift cards for each family eligible for free school meals, said organizer Felisa Klubes, who has a fifth-grader at Mason Crest. 

Then the PTO applied for a grant from Albertson Companies Foundation’s Nourishing Neighbors program and last week was awarded $9,000. Albertson Co. owns Safeway. The PTO will use those funds to buy $30 Safeway gift cards for each student on the free and reduced-price meal program. Families with more than one child will receive multiple cards. 

Additional donors, including state Sen. Dave Marsden of Annandale, plus Annandale Giant’s donation of $125 in gift cards brought the total to nearly $15,000.

The school has a very diverse population, and about 300 students qualify for free or reduced-price school meals, says school board member and Mason Crest parent Ricardy Anderson, who helped organize the fundraising campaign along with Klubes and the leaders of PTO.