What began as a humble teacher-led effort in 1970 to feed about 50 neighborhood families around the holidays has grown into a major event at Roosevelt High School in South Minneapolis. This year, students vied to secure the most donations for the school’s annual Operation Holiday Basket — resulting in a staggering 3 tons of food gathered for delivery in 305 baskets.
Over its 54-year history, Operation Holiday Basket is estimated to have delivered some 15,000 food parcels to neighborhood families in need. “Our school motto is ‘Enter to learn, leave to serve,’ so it’s very impactful for our students to do this,” says Christine Patlan, who oversees student and family engagement at Roosevelt.
“We did great with our donations; people were so generous. People are inherently good. This is proof of that.”
More than 125 students and alumni took over Roosevelt’s gymnasium on Dec. 20 — transforming the space into a massive basket-making assembly line. Each basket contained everything for a holiday feast, including a turkey provided at cost by Oxendale’s Market, whose owners graduated from the school, and multiple other nonperishable items.
BOTTOM: Sofie Harrison 11th, Keira Johnson 11th, Giselle Ortega 12th
Baskets, each estimated to weigh about 20 pounds, are delivered to neighborhood families, many of whom have students enrolled at the school. About half of Roosevelt’s 1,200 students come from low-income families. A nearby elementary school also provided donations, making Operation Holiday Basket “truly a case of students feeding students,” Patlan adds.
The entire student body takes part in a week of activities leading up to assembly line day, but space allows only a fraction to make baskets. “We make [Operation Holiday Basket work] accessible to everybody. Everybody is doing something,” Patlan says. “[But basket-making] is always a favorite to participate in. There’s a mad dash when permission slips go out.”
Overall, hunger rates in Minnesota continue to rise based on the number of visits to area food shelves. According to Second Harvest Heartland, which distributes more than 100 million pounds of food annually across the state, 2024 is expected to be the hungriest year on record for the third year in a row.
Giselle Ortega, a senior at Roosevelt, participates in Operation Holiday Basket, known fondly by its shorthand, “OHB,” because it brings together community, staff and students to support neighborhood families.
“Operation Holiday Basket, in my opinion, has been one of the best ways to take part in community-building at our school. Students come together in their classrooms during OHB week to decorate their classroom doors, and it makes school a very festive place to be,” she says.
“In our classes, we also collect money and nonperishable food items that go toward the boxes that we distribute throughout our neighborhood at the end of the week. I am happy that I have been able to be a part of OHB, and I think that we should spread the word so that we can keep this Teddy tradition going.”