Footprints Academy Students Make Sandwiches for the Homeless

Fewer than 100 Footprints Academy students on Wednesday made 600 sandwiches that a few hours later were given away to the homeless.

The Woodbury school for the third year partnered with Minneapolis Recreation Development (MRD), which since 1967 has worked to help the less fortunate.

The Footprints curriculum includes “outreach and giving,” said founder Nikki Robbins, and the student council chooses a few charities to work with each year.

When it comes to MRD, the students “we’re really excited and interested in his mission.”

MRD founder Allan Law, a former teacher, distributes an average of 1,600 sandwiches a night to shelters and homeless people on the street.

Footprints students collected coins to pay for the ingredients and raised enough that some money was also donated to MRD, Robbins said. Students also learned about homelessness during classroom lessons.

When homeless people are told the sandwiches are made by students, it means a little more than it would otherwise, said Steve Aase with MRD.

“It’s an amazing thing to see,” he said.

The Woodbury community in general has been very supportive of the program, Aase said. “I’m here a lot.”

“We really appreciate the community’s support,” he said.

The students on Wednesday rushed around with plastic gloves on their hands, stacking the sandwiches and bagging them up. They were part of a larger “army of people” who support MRD, Aase said.

MRD founder Law has been battling cancer and was unable to attend the sandwich-making event at Footprints.

For more information on the organization, visit the MRD website.

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