In early December, the ASB class had just found out the annual contenders in the 6th period food drive competition—Mrs. Labberton, Mr. Marthinsen, and Ms. Reid—did not have 6th period classes. The three “big dogs” had contributed over 4,500 lbs. combined last year to make up about 50% of the total food collected. We wondered if any one teacher or any class would step up, and if so, who?

In the end it was every single class that stepped up. Out of the 27 sixth period classes participating, every class contributed over 100 lbs. Twenty three of them contributed more than 200 total pounds of food, and 12 classes totaled over 500 pounds each.

The drive that began with the most uncertainty ended with a record-breaking total of over 13,500 lbs. of food, an average of 18 lbs. donated per student. As a past organizer for the food drive, I had never seen such a unified and balanced effort by students and teachers to raise money or remind each other to collect cans from home. In classes I saw students donate $20 bills into the class pool for grocery runs. Others visited Costco on weekends and wheeled in carts of canned soup and trunk loads of rice and beans to school. Teachers wrote reminders of their whiteboards. Ms. Labberton even began her own class of free sixth period students to help the cause and Ms. Weverka’s first period Yearbook class also made generous contributions. ASB held a competition between class councils and raised over a thousand pounds. Millenium High School filled up their garbage can in the hallway with food on a daily basis, and contributed over 600 pounds.

Beyond the competition

Though the food drive competition is fun and spurs classes to give that extra push, this year even classes that knew they weren’t close to winning continued to contribute every day. Our food drive is no longer just a school-wide competition. It is a community-wide effort to help those less fortunate.

How we can improve

A concern for future years is the lack of efficiency that results from the school-wide competition. Small-scale food drives are targeted toward donors bringing in cans from home, but our large-scale drive involves dozens of trips to the grocery store. While the food still goes to a good cause, there is a way to give more effectively. The Alameda County Food Bank specializes in efficiency, and states on its website that it can distribute $4 worth of food for every $1 donated. Rather than spending a class’s pooled money at a grocery store (that will take an extra cut of profit), the money could be directly donated to the food bank.

Contact Matt Leong at mleong@tphnews.com