Food Wanted
December 7, 2015
The annual two week food drive, hosted by ASB, during Nov. 2 – Nov. 13 is one of the most generous weeks Downey High School has, giving all the canned foods students can spare to be donated to those of the less fortunate for the upcoming holidays.
ASB holds a competition every year to see which class submits the most canned goods. The winning class gets the choice between an ice cream party, donut party or pizza party. The competition is not mandatory for all fourth periods but teachers are encouraged to join. The winning class at the end of the 2 weeks was Mr. Young in C-211 with over 1300 cans, second place was awarded to Mrs. Buenrostro with 264 items and last place, Mrs. Orca with 858 cans.
“This is my first year doing this [entering the contest],” Biology teacher, Salvador Zuniga, said. “I have a good feeling about it; this is a great class.”
Some teachers have not decided to enter the contest and are still collecting cans just from the goodness of their hearts. Yet some are exchanging cans for bathroom passes, homework, or even late work passes.
“I don’t think people should get anything; we don’t deserve prizes for giving to the needy,” Cheyenne Flores, 10, said. “They [the teachers] are bribing the students to help out. We should give because we know it’s good.”
ASB’s goal is to collect more cans than last year which means they have to collect over 2,000 cans. Teachers are also trying to reach the goal by collecting cans in all classes, and physical education classes are even offering movie day if each student brings five cans each period.
“We are fortunate to have cans already,” Sussy Sanchez, 10, said, “so I took cans from my house but buying them would be no big deal.”
Not all the students have turned in cans to the food drive some just because they do not want to. Some are not because of the lack of motivation, some students aren’t able to afford it and may be the people who are getting baskets.
“There are some people in this world that have something called intrusive motivation,” Zuniga said, “where they have it within themselves that want that drive to do good, and other people don’t have it.”
The cans collected will be turned into baskets, that will be given to those of the less fortunate for the thanks giving holidays making sure that they have food. Even though this is the only time of the year the school collects cans, the whole district still has a reduced or free food program during the school year for students. You can find more information about the free or reduced food program at http://schoollunchapp.com
