From the students who organized our experience with the Student Food Hunger Drive, we have compiled a list of their own personal reflections on their experiences. Below, you can read about how the Drive has changed those who were a part of it and the things that they have learned.
Andy Rao
After raising 6,809 pounds of canned peaches, peanut butter, and other non-perishable items, I could finally see that first place prize coming our way. After all of that hard work, we were finally going to get that $1000 prize! Our hard work was going to be rewarded, and that was a good feeling. After sweating through our neighborhood drive, putting up what seemed like an unending stock of fliers, and staying after school everyday to organize methods of raising more food, I was ready for that $1000 dollar prize. After putting signs up at the entrance of the school, distributing collection bags, and pestering people for donations at our local grocery store, I was not going to settle for anything less than $1000 and first place in the food drive competition. After all that’s what we were in it for, right?
But who are we competing against? Is it against other students and other schools who are trying to help the same people that we are? Definitely not. But then why is it called a competition? Because the real opponent is hunger. The real opponent is the adversity that people go through that renders them helpless, that makes them come home and go to bed with little or no food in their stomachs. Realization hit me with force so strong that I felt ashamed to even be thinking of the prize money when hundreds of people, hundreds of children, are suffering.
We ended up winning second place, and $750. But we gained something much more important than money or recognition. We relearned the lesson of gratefulness and humility. Gratefulness that by God’s grace we have escaped the horrors of hunger. And humility in the fact that we are lucky and that it is nothing more than fate that we sleep with full of bellies.
I’d like for every single one of the participants in this drive to remember that we aren’t doing this service for incentives. We are doing this because if people like us don’t help, there are millions of people who won’t be able to feed their kids every night. We need to keep the spirit of service pure and make sure that it stays alive for generations to come.
As Ronald Reagan once said, “No matter how big and powerful government gets, and many services it provides, it can never take the place of volunteers.”
Keep the spirit of service alive, and I the BVNW KAY Club would like to wish everyone good luck in all of their future endeavors in the wonderful world of service.
Jordan Kane
This year, The Student Hunger Drive became a tremendous accomplishment for BVNW. As a member of the kay board, I was involved in the kick off skit, distributing bags for the neighborhood drive, ironing out the logistics of all our activities, and collecting food that the elementary schools provided. Being a part of all the events and collections was a humbling experience- It gave me insight into an aspect of our community that I had never acknowledged- the hungry. As a community, because of where we live, we are often lead to believe that we are all financially secure- supplied with everything that is necessary for comfortable living. In living under this impression, we don’t regard the problem of hunger in our own society- and in doing so we deprive the underprivileged of not only food, but of hope, of vitality. Essentially, the food drive is much more than providing the hungry with food- it’s about giving people a second chance- through our uplifting support and empathy.
Evan Gage
Junior
My involvement with the Student Hunger Food Drive has been an incredible opportunity for me and for my classmate to learn more about hunger and to learn more about the food problems that face our communities. We heard about the drive first last May, when the program director from our local food bank approached our KAY Club last year. Since then, we’ve done some incredible things. We hung up over 2,000 plastic bags, handed out more than 2,500 fliers, our club has been featured on local news outlets, we’ve plead with homeroom teachers to collect donations from students, we’ve negotiated the donation of gift cards and Chick-fil-a sandwiches as incentives, we’ve waved signs, advertising our sponsors establishment, we called over 100 area businesses asking for donations, we’ve bought over $1,000 dollars worth of groceries (in one shopping spree), we’ve traveled four times to the food bank- both to be recognized in the kick off and the conclusion, but also to donate our time in sorting food. But perhaps more potent than anything else, I’ve learned more about the tremendous need facing my community every day. I’ve learned about the desperation of families struggling just to make ends meet. And above all else, I’ve learned about the tremendous generosity of my neighbors. I learned that even today; in a day of relative isolation, in an era where digital, rather than personal, communication dominates, that we still care about the world around us. Whether it was the manager of Chick-fil-a donating 100 coupons to the drive, Costco donating a $50 Gift Card, or simply my neighbor putting a couple cans outside of her door, this drive was an incredible opportunity for me to witness, firsthand, my community working together to solve a problem. And that alone was worth all the hours of my involvement, all the time and effort and sweat it took to move those boxes, to make those phone calls and run the drive. I am so glad I was afforded the opportunity to partake in this drive; and can’t wait to win it next year.
Jessie Lueck
My name is Jessie Lueck and I am a junior at Blue Valley Northwest. For the Student Hunger Food Drive, I organized our club’s Neighborhood Drive. After a lot of hard work, confusion with maps, and long hours walking from neighborhood to neighborhood, our school definitely reaped the benefit of our friendly neighbors. We filled the trunk of my family’s minivan to the brim and transported it all to the front of our school. Taking a step back and directly seeing the results of our time spent organizing and serving made the once stressful experience extremely fulfilling. The overall drive meant so much to me as well. Not only did I get to put my improving leadership skills into practice, I was also able to see direct benefits from our hard work here at Northwest. It was extremely beneficial to know that together as a school we were able to collect a total of 6,809 pounds, and with a second place prize, we were extremely proud of all of our efforts.
Ben Berger
My name is Ben Berger. I am sixteen years old and I am a junior attending the Blue Valley Northwest High School. Our school’s KAY Club sponsored the Student Food Hunger Drive, and we raised 6,809 pounds in one month’s time. I was involved in going out into the community and collecting food by going door to door. Through this process, we got almost a fifth of our total food in a 6 hour day. Through this experience, my outlook on poverty was drastically changed. I had an idea as to the amount of needed to sustain the Kansas City Metro area’s homeless community, but I found that I had really underestimated this amount. I got to experience how good it feels to help others, and how rewarding it can be for myself. I am extremely proud of our accomplishment in this food-drive, and I feel that I am a better person for participating and helping others to the best of my ability.
Samantha Hallak
Junior
When the Blue Valley Northwest Kay Club began the Student Hunger Food Drive, none of us thought that it would have such a profound impact on our lives. I began the food drive with our club slowly, starting by putting up posters with other members around the school. Slowly though, we began to snowball towards success as our school became more and more involved. Soon, we had enlisted the weights classes to help us move overloaded boxes of food and gotten even some of the most apathetic people to lug boxes towards the truck. At our weekly meetings the Kay club would sit around our table and ponder what we could do to tip the scales against hunger and continue to get food. After only a month we began to obsess, finding crazy ways to get more food for the Student Hunger Food Drive. We were all sad to see it end, but have already begin planning for another success next year.
Amy Hulse
My name is Amy Hulse and I am a sophomore at Blue Valley Northwest High School. The Harvesters drive was a very big deal at my school this year. My school’s KAY club became extremely engaged in the activity, eventually collecting over 6,809 pounds of canned goods. We started planning for the drive back at the beginning of school, planning how we would get the word out there. It was definitely a group effort. The surrounding grocery stores and neighborhoods were alerted and really rose to the challenge. We hung paper bags on houses, staked out grocery stores and placed barrels in many commercial offices. Parents and students brought food at football games, to school, and other extra curricular activities. It really changed my outlook on hunger in that I was unaware how many students in the KC metro area were afflicted with this hardship.
), we headed into the food bank and enjoyed some cookies, donuts, apples, and pop while we waited for our results. We were amazed when we found out that we collected so much.
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