Each year at the end of January St. Mary Catholic Schools celebrates National Catholic Schools Week. One of the ways in which St. Mary celebrates is by giving back to the community through the Food Drive. This annual event brings in food, water, and money for the Dell Rapids Food Pantry and continues to be the largest food drive for the food pantry each year.
Each day of the week is given a theme that indicates the items to be brought that day. The themes for this year were “Macaroni Monday”, “Toiletry Tuesday”, “Whatever Wednesday”, “Thirsty Thursday”, and “Free Will Friday”. K-6 and 7-12 classes compete to see who can bring in the most items. 
On Monday, students brought in 346 pounds of macaroni and other pasta noodles. On Tuesday, 633 toiletry items were donated. Tuesday morning, St. Mary freshman and sophomore students delivered the items to the food pantry to be sorted.
Wednesday’s “Whatever” theme allowed students to bring in any items they could to help. A total of 997 items were brought in that day. “Thirsty Thursday” had students bringing in 
water and juices, and a total of 23,392 ounces of drinks were donated. St. Mary juniors and seniors delivered the items to the food pantry on Thursday morning.
The last day of the week was “Free Will Friday”, in which students brought in monetary donations to help the food pantry. A total of over $1,400 was brought in and donated to the pantry.
A huge thank you to the St. Mary students and families for giving to the food drive each year 
during Catholic Schools Week! Your generosity continues to help numerous families throughout the Dell Rapids community!