According to Birdfeeder adviser Sophia Ross, the Birdfeeder aims to reach all students at Park in need of food.

“The Birdfeeder is a food shelf, ran by high school students in (my) community service class for other students and families that attend St. Louis Park High School,” Ross said. “Our goal (is) to make sure that all of the students are fed, so that they can come to school ready to learn.”

Ross said she recently chose this year’s Birdfeeder managers.  

“(The Birdfeeder managers are) kind of in charge of like the social media, the website, communicating with the community, setting up tables for information, collecting donations (and) getting those requests,” Ross said.

Junior and newly elected manager Madeline Eduardo-Gonzalez said her goal is to increase the number of students benefitting from the Birdfeeder.

“This year for Birdfeeder, I’m excited to try and double the numbers for donations and request forms,” Eduardo-Gonzalez said. “(I want to) make sure that everybody’s able to get what they need plus what they want through bags.”

According to Ross, eight students applied for a spot as Birdfeeder manager, with only four spots available.

“It was such a hard decision (to choose this year’s managers) because I was like ‘oh my God, what am I going to do? All these people are so great,’ so we tried to pull on everyone’s strengths and how they would work well together,” Ross said.

Junior and manager of the Birdfeeder Leensa Ahmed said she hopes to increase Birdfeeder donations this year.

“(My goal is) having everyone in the school be more aware of the Birdfeeder and being able to like feel free to donate whenever they can,” Ahmed said.

Ross said any student can fill out a Birdfeeder form in the counseling office to request a bag.

“Everything is kept confidential and so what we do is we have a half sheet of paper that’s called SLP Birdfeeder Request Form; they are down in the counseling office,” Ross said. “Students can just fill one of those forms out saying what they need if they have any allergies, how many bags they can carry, do they want (items) in a paper bag or do they want it disguised in a backpack?”

According to Ross, the Birdfeeder managers collect request forms daily.

“As needs change, students kind of want (bags) right away and so (the managers will) check for requests every single day and they can pack them as soon as (students) need,” Ross said.

Eduardo-Gonzalez said she hopes Birdfeeder can reach more students this year than it did last year, while still remaining confidential.

“Hopefully it stays on the low so no one’s like embarrassed or hopefully the word just gets out way more than it did last year so that people have that opportunity to get help,” Eduardo-Gonzalez said.

For more information, visit http://theslpbirdfeeder.weebly.com/how-to-donate.html.