The 13th annual Hokies vs. Hoos Food Drive to benefit the local Feedmore food bank is in full swing and will be ending Monday, February 13th, after an extension given on Friday, February 10th. The cans that students gather are desperately needed for donations to give to families and kids in need who don’t know where their next meal will come from.
JRHS plays a big part in supporting the city-wide revile between Virginia Tech and UVA to see who can raise the most food for the Central Virginia Food Bank. It is especially important in late winter when donations are drastically low.
“The Food Bank is in desperate need of the following items: peanut butter, canned tuna and chicken, low sodium vegetables, fruits packed in juice, pasta sauce (no glass), canned or dry beans, hot and cold cereal, and whole grain snack. (Please, no ramen noodles!),” Principal Dr. Jennifer Coleman said in the JRHS Newsletter.
Each class is competing for privileges and many teachers are giving their own incentives to students. The winning grade level will earn the senior privileges of leaving early on Fridays for five weeks following the Food Fight. They will also earn two days of both lunches, dates TBD. Last year the juniors won, so it’s possible for the seniors to lose their privileges for five weeks.
“What we are doing is a grain of sand on the beach. Kids are starving, we can’t be the problem but the solution,” social studies teacher Shannon Castelo said.
In addition, one thing to consider would be this from FeedingAmerica.org: “No One Can Thrive on an Empty Stomach, 42 million people face hunger in the U.S. today — including nearly 13 million children and more than five million seniors. Hunger knows no boundaries — it touches every community in the U.S., including your own.”
The new incentives that were added on Wednesday, February 8th are: if seniors raise 2,400 cans (which is lower than they made last year) they can keep all their senior privileges. Also if the student body works together to come up with 7,100 cans everyone will get O.N.E Lunch for five weeks. As of this Wednesday, we have raised 3,700 cans, and if every student brought in two cans, we would reach that goal.
Last year we gained 7,000 donated food items and $1,500 in cash for a total of over 20,000 meals, and we have won the competition every year. The cans are being collected by the English teachers and placed in the library. Help beat last year’s earning and provide for your community by bringing in cans!
Dylan Lepore 