Hunger Drive Season is in full swing again this fall in the Quad Cities, and high schools in the area are giving their all to make this year’s Hunger Drive more successful than ever.
The Riverbend Food Bank can be accredited for the Hunger Drive’s recurrence each year. Since 1985, the Riverbend Food Bank has held their annual Hunger Drive, where high schools in the Quad City area compete for six weeks to raise funds and food for the food bank.
This ‘friendly’ competition is a fixture in the Quad Cities due to the profound impact it has on local food disparity each year. The Hunger Drive’s legacy is fulfilled by high schools across the Quad Cities, who, in 2022, raised over 800,000 meals for the food bank. This year is projected to be no different, with high school students collecting donations and holding fundraisers since the summer.
Pleasant Valley High School has won the Hunger Drive for seven consecutive years, and efforts are already underway to secure another win for PV. Preparations in the summer, including holding a pickleball tournament, set PV up for another win.
Pleasant Valley’s Spartan Assembly is to thank for PV’s success in the Hunger Drive each year. They are in charge of orchestrating the month-long event for the entire district, which requires extensive organization and work to collect donations efficiently.
The biggest area of donation is the school competition, where PV’s departments go head-to-head to see which can collect the most donations. Spartan Assembly executive Katelyn Chen gave an in-depth explanation as to what Spartan Assembly does for the school competition. “Each department is in competition with one another to see who can get the most amount of donations. We allow students to donate to their favorite teachers, and every Friday, you might see Spartan Assembly members picking up boxes from every classroom and weighing them in the main hallway,” she explained.
Students are able to track this competition through the morning announcements and through Spartan Assembly’s thematic hallway tracker. Chen leads the school competition with the other executives and spoke on the competition this year: “This year’s theme is Mario Kart, and you can check which department is in the lead on the rainbow road racecourse in the main hallway.”
Pleasant Valley is committed to winning the Hunger Drive each year, and some teachers put in extra effort to ensure their classes do their part in the department competitions by incentivizing donations. Spanish teacher Kathryn Buchter uses incentives in her class to ensure that her students are doing their part to contribute to the Hunger Drive. “In World Language we like to give incentives to the students during the Hunger Drive so that they can all feel like they are part of the process,” she stated. “When PV reaches their goal, we want as many students as possible to feel like they took part and were part of the win.”
In addition to the school competition, Spartan Assembly organizes numerous events outside of school hours to collect donations from the community. Chen spoke on some of these events and their impact: “Spartan Assembly also puts on special events for the Hunger Drive, like Fill the Truck, reverse powderpuff and Trick or Treating for Cans. These events are a great way to branch out of PV and collect donations from the community while spreading awareness about the Hunger Drive and local food disparity,” she explained.
The Hunger Drive is a significant undertaking for schools across the Quad Cities, though no district prides themselves more in their success than Pleasant Valley. Pleasant Valley students and Spartan Assembly give their all to ensure not only another win for PV, but that plenty of food is donated to the food bank. “The Student Hunger Drive is one of the biggest events that Spartan Assembly participates in, and it is really important to us to reach our goal and keep getting more donations every year,” Chen explains as Spartan Assembly prepares for another busy Hunger Drive season.
Chen expressed the meaning of Hunger Drive, not only to Spartan Assembly and PV, but to the community. “Of course we want to win the competition and add another first place banner to our collection, but it is more than just a contest. To us, it is really impactful to be at the forefront of solving hunger in our community and it’s something that we are extremely lucky that we are able to do successfully each year.”
