OLA faculty and students participate in service projects throughout the year. All students are actively involved in the Annual Day of Service. In addition, the following school-wide programs are sponsored by the Spiritual Life Committee each year.
Hearty Snack Bags
Hearty Snack Bags is a program designed for two things — to provide meals for those who do not have enough to eat every day and to teach the students about giving to those who are less fortunate.
The Spiritual Life Group hands out brown paper lunch bags one Thursday each month. Students make a hearty snack for a person in need and return the Hearty Snack Bag to school the next day. There are Spiritual Life bins in the classroom for collection, and the meals are delivered by Spiritual Life to The Catholic Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in downtown Atlanta. Students may make any meal they like with non-perisable iems and are asked to try to make it healthy. Students often decorate the bags before returning the Hearty Snack Bag.
OLA provides at least 200 snack bags to the mission each month through the Hearty Snack Bag program.
Adopt-a-Family
The annual Adopt-a-Family project is a community outreach program that OLA has been doing for many years in conjunction with the Atlanta Catholic Charities Refugee Resettlement Program. From the moment these families arrive in Atlanta, Catholic Charities provides aid to them. Their needs are great, and Catholic Charities relies on the Atlanta Catholic community to help fill the basic needs as the families start their new lives. One of the first things they receive are “Welcome Baskets,” which Catholic Charities provides. These baskets contain basic kitchen wares, cleaning and bath essentials, and bedding.
Spiritual Angels visit the classrooms to describe the project to the students, explain what a refugee is, and outline how OLA through Catholic Charities helps them. The Spiritual Angel for each class details the items needed.
The OLA community has been wonderfully generous with this project each year, and Catholic Charities is truly grateful for the help OLA is able to provide. Please remember these refugee families in your prayers.
St. Vincent de Paul Food Drives
Twice each year Spiritual Life places bins in each classroom to collect food for the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry at OLA Catholic Church. Each grade level has a suggested food item to donate, but all food items are welcome.