It’s that time of the year again when Pleasant Valley is coming together as a community to raise food donations for the Riverbend Food Drive.
Every year, beginning in October, the Student Hunger Drive kicks off. This is the cue for students to bring nonperishable items or monetary donations to the school in hopes to collect as much food as possible for the five-week-long, dynamic Student Hunger Drive race. At Pleasant Valley, Spartan Assembly chooses to use themes to draw students’ attention in and urge them to bring cans. In 2015, a Hunger Games theme took over the school. As teachers were separated into departments, they competed for students’ cans and were eliminated week by week and teacher by teacher until the final stance. Jenni Levora, of the English department, ended up taking the 2015 trophy.
“It was interesting how competitive the teachers got. It was pretty intense, but all for a good cause, said Levora. “It was fun to win but more fun to see what it did for the community.”
Last year, in honor of the 2016 Olympics, PV hosted their very own Olympics Hunger Drive. Teachers were selected to perform their very own abilities in front of the school and pushed for students to bring cans to their rooms, helping them win. Junior Lily Williams said, “I enjoyed both themes in years prior, but I definitely thought the Hunger Games was more involved for the student body. The Olympics was a fun assembly, but the Hunger Games kept the students more engaged for the whole Hunger Drive.”
With a total weight of over 40,000 pounds of food, Pleasant Valley came in 4th place last year. This year, Spartan Assembly hopes to raise over 60,000 pounds of food and achieve a higher ranking. Spartan Assembly needs involvement from all the students and community members at Pleasant Valley High School to accomplish this goal.
This year, the student council is going all out for the Survivor theme. Based on the popular TV show “Survivor”, this year’s Hunger Drive will be decked out in rainforest decor and challenges for teachers to face every week. Spartan Assembly executive member, Emma Horsfield said, “I love our new theme this year and am excited to be on the island with our Spartan Survivors. This is my favorite time of the school year, and I can not wait to get everyone involved.”
Teachers will be eliminated based off “Survivor” style challenges such as Immunity or Reward challenges, either giving them an advantage or fallback making this year’s Hunger Drive a friendly competition. Students and community members can help out the Hunger Drive by bringing cans or monetary donations into school to support their favorite teachers, or to school events such as Fill The Truck that occurred on September 15. There will be challenges and special events throughout the whole six week campaign so keep your eyes open to support the Hunger Drive.
