Since 2009, the SRC at Martensville High School has been organizing a food drive around the holidays to help local families in need of a little extra support. This year, Project Change will be partnering up with the SRC in order to help get as many students as possible involved, as well as to reach as many homes within the community as possible.
Project Change is a group of over 50 students throughout grades 9-12 who are on a mission to spread kindness to the school and community through volunteering and fundraising. This year marks the largest group of students to participate with Project Change, and MHS Teacher Breanne Cooper noted that, “Students seem so excited to have extra-curricular activities back and are eager to get involved. The food drive is part of Project Change’s 12 Days of Kindness, where as a group, students complete an act of kindness every day for 12 school days in December.”
Unfortunately, last year the food drive did not take place due to the COVID pandemic, but this year, students are working hard to make it the best one yet. “We are excited to have an energetic group of grade 12 student leaders to help engage our grade 9, 10 and 11 students and to keep the MHS tradition alive,” Cooper said.
“The food drive is a fun way to make people’s holiday season a little brighter,” MHS Grade 12 student Kaden Solomon said.
This year, the food drive will be taking place on December 15th from 6:00pm to 8:30pm and all items collected through the food drive will be donated to local families through the Martensville Fire Department food hamper program. Students will be going door-to-door within the community asking for donations of non-perishable, non-expired, food items (ex: dry pasta, pasta sauce, canned goods, stuffing, etc.). Cash donations will also be accepted, which will help to fill any gaps in the hampers with fresh items. Another contactless option is to leave items on their front step on December 15th with a note stating that it is for the food drive.
Students are looking forward to getting involved and helping to support families in their community. “The food drive is a great way to give back to the people in our community during the holiday season,” Grade 12 student Kayla Kurmey, stated.
MHS students are invited to get involved by joining a food drive team, volunteering to help sort donations at school, or by bringing non-perishable food items to the school. Cooper noted that they will be doing their best to reach all residences in Martensville; however, if a home is missed and you would like to contribute, contact Breanne Cooper at Breanne.cooper@spiritsd.ca, or drop items off at the main doors at MHS.
Not only do students have the opportunity to give back, but they also get to benefit from working together. “My favorite aspect of the food drive is the friendly competition and opportunity to work on team building within our school to help out our community,” Zaye Andreas, MHS Grade 12 student, said.
Be sure to mark your calendars for December 15 so you can help make the food drive in partnership between the MHS SRC and Project Change the biggest success yet.
ABOVE PHOTO CAPTION: Marked donations can be left on the front step on December 15th for a contactless option.
