2,980 pounds of food. $8,662 in donations. Over 45,000 meals.
After nearly a month of fundraising, Leesville Road’s food drive finally came to an end on Thursday, Nov. 30. On the heels of the JDRF fundraiser and only weeks before the holiday season, Leesville still donated enough money and food to support a family of four for over ten years.
Hannah Daley, junior and Executive Council secretary, said, “The fact that our school was able to raise as much as we did in such a short time period really proves that we can band together and make a difference.”
As an incentive for students to get involved, Executive Council chose The Hunger Games as the theme for this year’s drive. In the past, classes who contributed the most were rewarded with a Bojangles breakfast; this year, the reward worked slightly differently. The top five fundraising classes each sent three representatives to a mock- Hunger Games, with the winner’s class earning the Bojangles breakfast.
“We thought that by using pop culture, like different books and movies, we could get the school more involved and interested,” said Daley. “I feel like the theme was a great idea, even though the coverage for the event was a little underwhelming.”
Mrs. Dinkenor, whose class took top honors in terms of donations, encourages her students to participate because it teaches them the significance of giving. Said Dinkenor, “If you learn to give and realize that you’re blessed at a young age, then you take that message into adulthood and pass it along.”
For two days after the drive ended, Executive Council finished any last-minute boxing, but eventually took all the food collected to the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina (FBCENC) the morning of Saturday, Dec. 1.
The FBCENC, which has been open for 32 years, is the second-largest food bank in North Carolina, responsible for feeding nearly 500,000 people daily. Even with the contributions from LRHS and other surrounding schools, the warehouse is still turned over every week.
Virginia Conlon, Coordinator of Special Events and Food Drives for the FBCENC, graciously gave Executive Council a tour of the entire warehouse after their weigh-in, including a trip to the T-FAP (federal emergency program) room and the main freezer.
Throughout the tour, Conlon preached the importance of ending hunger both locally and around the world because of the detrimental effects starving can have on the human body. “Unfortunately, hunger is everywhere, and it is devastating,” said Conlon. “Without proper nutrition, kids don’t grow the right way and brain cells don’t grow the right way. Nobody in this country should ever go hungry though; we have too much food here not to protect our neighbors.”
