Every year a big part of earning class points for homecoming week comes from participation in the food drive.

Each grade has a different designated classroom where they drop off and store all of the nonperishable food items that they bring. Canned veggies, canned stews, and chilis, rice, peanut butter, etc. are all great ideas for food to donate.

The goal and purpose of a food drive are to help donate to food banks, soup kitchens, food pantries, and many other places in order to keep their shelves stocked. Hunger and not being able to afford money for food all the time is much more common in communities than students may think. Every community is affected by hunger in one aspect or another.

For the specific location we use, the food donated during homecoming week is then donated to the Rathdrum Food Bank on Main Street. Piper Rielly, our 2021-2022 ASB vice president says that “donating is super important because the food bank knows about our fundraiser and relies on it for a big source of their donations.” The food drive held at Lakeland high school has become an annual thing now.

Points and class standings get very competitive throughout the week leading up to homecoming and the food drive being one of the biggest ways to earn those points. Piper Reilly stated “people don’t start bringing a lot in until they realize they’re losing” she then proceeds with “but it works so it’s a win-win.”

The Rathdrum food bank also appreciates the donation of small toiletry items, such as soaps, shampoos, lotions, etc. Senior Kaitlyn Kohoutek who is also a part of the student council says that “I think we see the most of canned vegetables like beans and stuff or bars of soap that people take from hotels.”

The total number and amount of items that are donated each year always end up being “normally pretty close” to the previous year, according to Kohoutek.

Our ASB vice president speaks on behalf of the student council regarding a goal for donations this year and says “our goal is to at least break even with last year if not bring in more, last year we brought in a total of 14552.515 ounces.”

There is a great hope that as a school this year we can surpass total numbers from previous years. Giving back through the food drive is a great way to bring competition into this eventful week while also helping out our community.