Hannah Reed is NWIndianaLife.com's #1StudentNWI representative at Lake Central High School. This month, Hannah highlights the food drive at her school, an annual effort helping those in need during the weeks prior to Thanksgiving.
Every year since 1982, a food drive has been held at Lake Central in the weeks before Thanksgiving. It is run by Mr. Tom Clark, Social Studies instructor.
“The food drive has been going on since 1982/1983. When it first started, it was N-Teens and Student Government, and I think those two clubs ran it. One year they got a ‘record’ of 527 cans. The next year we moved in, I started teaching here 82-83, and we ran our first drive and got a whole whopping 3000 [cans],” Clark said.
Since then, the number of cans raised has been well over the thousands. Each year the drive gets an average of 50 to 60 thousand cans. Students from the Interact Club at LC meet every Wednesday in Mr. Clark’s room, discussing plans and ways for the food drive to get more attention from students and teachers.
“I’ve been in [Interact] for 2 and a half years," said Ryan Emery-Wiebe, senior and co-president of Interact. "I’m currently the co-president with Jill [Wilschke]. We make posters every Wednesday in Mr. Clarks room, we usually hang those up around the school, we go to different classrooms and tell them to donate. We just spread the word."
Some students originally began donating for the thrill of gaining a prize, but soon they realize that donating the food and money gives them a sense of accomplishment, and that is better than any prize.
“The most rewarding thing about participating in the food drive is seeing in the end how much money we raised and how many cans of food we collected. When the food drive is complete, we get to see how our hard work has payed off. Knowing that our hard work will help others enjoy things we take for granted is the best feeling,” said Jillian Wilschke, senior and co-president of Interact.
The 6th hour classes at LC compete against each other, seeing who can raise the most for the food drive. The winner out of all of the classes receives a prize, however, with the new healthy eating at the school, the prizes aren’t set in stone just yet.
“At first, we always want it where we’re giving donuts or something like that [as a prize], we have to watch that now [because of new health rules]. I think a lot of classes do it for the donuts, but when they start to see how much they’ve brought in and how it’s going to really help people, it changes their attitude. Some people are really giving. I love doing it because I’m able to see students in a whole new light,” Clark said.
The food and money are donated to a few different places. Mr. Clark tries to help as many places as he can with the food and money that the students and teachers donate.
“We give it away to food pantries, and some of the Dyer churches. You know, this is what’s so great: when we go in there and we give them food, a lot of the time their shelves are just empty. We can provide so much food for needy families and stuff. You look at the community we live in and you think ‘oh there’s nobody needy around here.’ There’s a lot of needy people, so it really helps,” Clark said.
The food drive continues until November 26, the day before LC’s fall break, and donations are currently being accepted from residents and students of all areas that want to participate and help out.
Watch a few skits shown to Lake Central students to promote the Food Drive.
Interact man, an old skit filmed by LCTV with Mr. Clark on the food drive:
One filmed this year, the food drive skit going from 5:55 to 7:25: