Students in the Rainier High School leadership class are giving back to their community with their annual food drive to support the Valley Heart Assembly of God food bank.
The drive began Feb. 24 and will continue through March 14. Students are collecting non-perishable food items and snacks, and the drive is a competition between first hour classes at RHS.
The class that brings in the most pounds of food will win ice cream bars.
“To make it fair, we divided the pounds by students, and we wanted to choose something that kids would probably want for a reward, so we did ice cream bars,” RHS senior James Meldrum, who is co-organizing the drive with fellow senior Jetta Watkins, said. “It’s our last year here and probably our last project together. We just want to go big or go home.”
As of Tuesday, the school had collected about 974 pounds of food. Community members can also bring food items to the RHS office, the Rainier Post Office, Rainier City Hall and Turner Automotive. Monetary donations are also accepted, as $1 is equivalent to 1 pound of food.
“This time of year, after all the holidays, that’s when the food banks are wiped out,” Watkins said. “That’s why we like to do the food drive during this time of the year so families actually do have an opportunity to get food from the food bank.”
