CHENEY - The high school Key Club has joined forces with the Washington Army National Guard and Bridge 58 to feed area families this winter.
The Guard Against Hunger food drive runs to Dec. 3.
Students will donate food and personal items; the goal is to collect 3,000 items, officials said.
Guardsmen have will provide a donut party for the first-period class that donates the most items per student.
"Since some classes are larger than others, we felt that the only fair way to determine a winning class is to average the number of donated items with the number of students in each class," Key Club adviser and language teacher Krista Delaney said. "All donations will go to Bridge 58, a fairly new local food bank that feeds around 80 families a week in Cheney and surrounding communities."
"The idea behind Bridge 58 arose from a passage in Isaiah 58, that says take care of people in need." Director Christina Damerville said.
The idea is to provide bridge resources to indigent residents, she said.
Damerville said when COVID mandates began impacting store supplies, her family started baking bread for their neighbors.
Borrowing from the "free library" idea, they put a table outside where neighbors could drop off donations and it just grew from there.
While all donations are appreciated, she said the focus is on items such as dry cereal, snacks (like crackers), fruit snacks, granola bars, canned soups and chili, prepackaged desserts, stuff for tacos and boxed meals.
Personal-care items – such as grooming supplies, shampoo, body wash, toilet paper, laundry and dish pods, baby wipes and toothpaste – are also needed.
Several high school juniors and seniors shared their thoughts on the food drive.
"The food drive lets us do something good that reaches a lot of people," 17-year-old junior Valerie Hanes said. "It has such a positive impact and it's really cool to be a part of something like that."
"It means a lot that our school can come together and turn a little food drive into something big, helping a lot of families in our own community," junior Colin Chen, 17, added. "It really goes to show the values and greatness at the core of our school."
Senior Yosseline Rivas, 18, also shared what the food drive means to her.
"What the food drive means to me is being able to help those families in need of a hot meal," she said. "Also, we are raising awareness about hunger in our community. If our donations can help a few or a lot of families we are making a big difference."
Not all local families are fortunate to have a meal at home, 16-year-old junior Sean San Pedro said.
"I go home every day and know that I'll come home to a meal. Not everyone has that," he said. "With the food drive, we can give people certainty of when and where their next meal is coming from. That's a wonderful thing to me."
Junior Landon Moad, 16, said the effort is meeting a community need.
"This food drive shows what Cheney High School can do. It shows what the students can do, and that really matters to me," he said.
Junior Kyle Mitchell, 16, agreed.
"To me, the food drive is a way to finally help again," he said. "It's been a rough couple of years and being able to get together and help the community with my friends is something very exciting."
Delaney is happy about the opportunity to be involved.
"With so many negatives happening in our world today, I am incredibly grateful that we as a school have an opportunity to do something good in our community," she said. "This food drive is allowing the students of Cheney High School to have a positive impact on the lives of local people that need a little help during this holiday season."
Features reporter Sarah Stephens can be reached at features@cheneyfreepress.com
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