Photo Courtesy Of: ALINA TRAN
BY KYRA BACON
Key Club hosted the annual Harvest Drive to help feed Broward County families in need during the holidays from October 29th to November 16th.
The Harvest Drive was headed by Key Club Historian Alina Tran and the goal was to collect 3,000 nonperishable food items including cereals, canned goods, and pasta. Carts were set outside of the main office where students volunteered and encouraged donations. Students that donated were eligible to receive service hours.
Within the first two weeks, 2,000 food items were collected. On Sunday, November 11th volunteers stood outside of Publix and collected another 1,500 cans along with $500 in donations.
“The food will help the families in need in Broward County mostly during the holidays because that’s when the Food Bank is empty,” Tran said. “We want to feed as many families as possible.”
The original Harvest Drive was started by parent Renee Herman, who set it up at her child’s school. The idea caught on and spread to other schools across Broward County. Last year, Key Club started its own branch and merged the project with The Souper Bowl of Caring, a Key Club food drive that has been around for several years.
“Mrs. Herman came to our school and spoke to members about the drive,” Tran said. “She inspired me to make it more successful this year.”
The Harvest Drive collected 1,564 cans last year in less than two weeks.
“In our first year, the drive went really well,” VP of Service of Key Club Vincent Ong said. “We had a very short amount of time, so we organized everything very quickly.”
This year, the volunteers had more time to organize a board and collect the cans. Also, other clubs have helped out, including SGA and NHS.
“The more clubs that get involved, the more people are involved, the more cans we collect and the more people know about it,” Key Club President McCayla Sica said.
At the end of the 2 weeks, the Harvest Drive organizers took the boxes of food to Western High School. There, 237 registered families picked up one of the packages that will help them last through the holidays.
“It’s really warming to know that we helped so many children and families,” Sica said.
