Student government hosts annual canned food drive for community

PHOTO: Food for the canned food drive is collected in paper boxes or bags and sorted by STEAC volunteers.

By Ayisi Ni,

BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

Davis High’s student government is hosting a canned food drive for the local Short Term Emergency Aid Committee (STEAC) from Nov. 8 to Nov. 19. Students are encouraged to bring in canned goods to their fourth period class to be donated. 

Paige Carlock is the head of the food drive committee. She expects many cans will be donated. 

“We have 46 [out of 63] classrooms that are participating,” Carlock said.

According to social studies teacher Kristin Swanstrom, some teachers give extra credit for donating cans. However, she prefers to stay on the sidelines. 

“Asking kids to go home and raid the pantry, is usually a pretty low stakes and high participation activity,” Swanstrom said. “I try to encourage them to do it out of the goodness of their hearts.”

However, she is concerned that there might be low participation in her class this year.

While they could have learned about the food drive on Instagram or from other students, her class officially became aware of it in the weekly student government announcements. At that point, the drive was already halfway through.

“They actually dropped [the collection box] off when we were taking a quiz,” Swanstrom said. “So hopefully we will have more donations next week.” 

Swanstrom also believes that the competition held by student government every year will incentivize students to bring in more cans.

“The class with the most cans will get a prize,” Carlock said. “[But] we haven’t revealed what the prize is yet.”

Margretta Gurley is a STEAC volunteer coordinating the food drive. She picks up the cans from DHS and brings them to STEAC facilities.  

“We will sort these and bring some down to our warehouse and rotate the food, and get as much out as we can,” Gurley said. 

Carlock says that while a food drive was not able to be held last year due to distance learning, she remembers the one from her sophomore year.

“I’m really excited to do this. I’m really excited to give back to the community, especially before the holiday season,” she said.