Every year Erie High School National Honors Society organizes a school wide food drive for the Erie Food Bank, which provides non-perishable food items for families in need around the Erie community. The drive runs from November 13th-17th and students at Erie High can bring in donations to their B5 class. 

This year, Seniors Kendall Wachowiak and Lauren Adams are the students in charge of the drive. This is their first time organizing the food drive and although they are keeping it fairly similar to past drives, they are making some small changes, “we are asking for specific things, so they [The Erie Food Bank] said cereal, crackers, and granola bars are what we are specifically looking for,” Adams explained. 

Running an event as big as this, takes a ton of work, from the committee leaders to the committee as well as the teacher supervisors. “They’re [the committee is] helping label and distribute boxes, hang up posters, and then at the end of the food drive they’re going to be a big part of getting all the cans to the food bank as well as counting all the cans to see which class won,” Wachowiak commented. 

Each committee has at least one supervisor to help make sure everything runs smoothly, either Greta Von Bernuth or Judith Trinkner who are the staff for NHS, for this event both helping make sure everything runs smoothly. Von Bernuth says that although they’re supervising the event, their role is much more advising. She stated, “we help them think of the things that they need to be doing, sometimes you just need to brainstorm a little bit like how to publicize, how to collect, how to get the word out, who are your contacts that you need to work with, who do you really need to reach out to, all that kind of support stuff.” 

Each B5 class block is competing with one another to win the prize for the most donations. Adams shared that on November 30th, after Thanksgiving break, the winning class will get the prize of coffee and donuts in the morning. She exclaimed, “it’d be great if anyone could donate all their non-perishable foods, and especially those crackers, granola bars, and cereal!” 

The last day to donate for the food drive is today so make sure that you remember to bring in any non-perishable foods you may have to donate to help make someone in the Erie communities holiday season a little brighter.