ASB’s food drive competition is a great way to get involved in Carlmont’s charity opportunities.
The competition is from Nov. 15 through Nov. 19, with each second-period class competing against each other, but students can donate through Dec. 14. The winner gets a pizza party, but most who donate are not donating for the intention of winning.
“I haven’t had any teacher reach out to me saying that, hey, it’d be great to get a prize for my class,” said ASB Activities Director Jim Kelly. They’re not doing it for the prize which I think just tells you about the community of Carlmont. We’re doing it because it’s a good cause.”
According to Kelly, students can now donate gift cards from Safeway or Target. All of the proceeds will go to Carlmont families who need these resources. Before this year, ASB also donated to Second Harvest Food Bank, but Second Harvest Food Bank changed its policies, and now they can’t donate to them.
“Cans definitely present a challenge and I feel like the gift card just takes care of all of that… They’re buying some other essential items like shampoo and sanitary items and things like that… I learned that there’s a lot of families out there that need things like a hairbrush or masks,” Kelly said. “It’s more than just a food drive, but that’s what everybody identifies with.”
ASB informed students by telling second-period teachers how to get students to donate to the cause. They also made statements about it on the school announcements, Canvas, and Instagram.
One student that donated after hearing about the food drive was sophomore Sushant Bhopale, who learned about it from his orchestra class. He then contributed after hearing that the proceeds go to students in need of food.
I haven’t had any teacher reach out to me saying that, hey, it’d be great to get a prize for my class. They’re not doing it for the prize which I think is super cool for the community, and that just tells you about the community of Carlmont.
— Jimmy Kelly
“I had some extra food at my house, and I felt like it would be nice to people who need food,” Bhopale said. “We had some extra box cereal, so I asked my parents which ones would you be willing to give away. I think it’s just a nice gesture.”
Additionally, the message got to other Carlmont students, who still need to find the time to donate and look through what they have.
“I saw [an announcement about the food drive] on Canvas when I was looking for the standardized testing. I need to take a look at my pantry to see if there’s anything I don’t want and then see if I want to donate,” Bella Eydel, a sophomore, said.
Freshman Lucas Kishore got ASB’s message from his second period, but he still needs to figure out what to contribute.
“I’m probably going to bring something. I just haven’t thought about what to bring,” Kishore said. “All my cereal has been opened.”
Other students did not receive ASB’s message, as some teachers do not tell their students about the food drive.
“It’s an interesting issue that we face in ASB with everything that we try to promote,” Kelly said. We do all the channels of promotion possible to us: social media, email out to the staff, announcements. All of those channels we use and still we’re never going to get to the whole student body.”
One of the students who wasn’t reached was Daichi Holland, a sophomore, partly due to his teacher.
“I’ve never heard of it. He never told me about it,” Holland said. “I think I would donate. I have a lot of canned goods in my pantry.”
Alan Finkelstein, a junior, also did not hear about the food drive, but later said he wanted to donate.
“I have no idea what that is,” Finkelstein said. “I would like to help other people in need. They’re in need and I’m not.”
Even still, ASB notices Carlmont’s generosity in each food drive.
“What I’ve learned here is that we have a very, very generous community here at Carlmont. The teachers and the students really buy into the idea that there’s a lot of people in our community that need help with food,” Kelly said.
