“This spring, what can you do to help fight hunger in your community?”
A call for action made by the Eagan Resource Center, Eagan’s nonprofit food shelf, in their monthly newsletter was answered. Eagan’s very own Student Government ran their annual food drive with success. A total of 872 food items and approximately $3000 were donated from March 5th to March 12th.
The effect does not end there. March is a special month for the food shelf. The Eagan Resource Center participates in Minnesota’s FoodShare March Campaign. This means for every dollar donated to the food shelf, the campaign matches by donating $10 worth of nutritious food.
“So each donation—large or small—makes a BIG difference right here in your community!” states the Eagan Resource Center’s March newsletter.
Although the food items are not matched, they are extremely useful to the food shelf as well.
“March is a good time to do it because that’s when they’re getting low on inventory” says Ms. Blundell, a faculty advisor for Student Government.
The reason the food drive is such as success is because of Student Government’s efforts to make the food drive competitive. The food drive operated on a point system. Every food item equaled 1 point and every dollar equaled 2 points. The point system encouraged competition. Student Government also tried to make donating fun.
“The overall theme was a musical food drive so each day was assigned a song. The days were breakfast food, song was ‘Good Morning, Good Morning’; canned vegetables, ‘Veggie Tale Theme Song’; paper products, ‘Paper Planes’; baby products, ‘Baby Got Back’; fruit and lunch day, ‘Peanut Butter Jelly Time’; and foods from around the world, ‘We are the World’.” says Ellie Mehr, a senior co-president of Student Government.
These efforts were used as a way to get the PAWS classes to engage and donate to the food drive. And several PAWS rooms did. The winner of the food drive was Mr. Thull’s PAWS with 2000 points. The runner ups were Ms. Anderson’s PAWS and Mr. Remington’s PAWS. On the fifth day of the food drive, Ms. Anderson’s PAWS was leading with 780 points, however Mr. Thull’s PAWS rallied and won in the last 2 days.
“Every day we make an announcement about what’s come in that day, try to get them fired up for the next day.” says Ms. Bludell.
This competitive spirit is what drives the EHS food drive to such excellent success. The winning PAWS receives a complimentary breakfast to reward their efforts.
The giving doesn’t need to be limited to the month of March. The Eagan Resource Center needs donations year round. This even includes fresh produce in the summer. The food shelf encourages those who donate to garden for the food shelf.
“We exist to serve those in need and to eliminate hunger in Dakota County” summarizes the mission statement of the Eagan Resource Center.
And with the help of school run food drives like EHS’s, they can begin to achieve just that.