High school students across the county participated in the ninth annual Humboldt County Holiday Food Drive, competing for the total weight amassed between classes. Over the past 30 years, the national drive has evolved over time, continuing to give back to communities across the nation.
As for Humboldt County, Senator Mike McGuire’s holiday food drive continues to set record numbers every year. For the past nine years, local schools have competed in the holiday food drive, trying to collect as many cans as possible. The big weigh in occurs annually on December 11th, where mass amounts of food are measured and compared to determine the year’s winner.
The main goal of the food drive is to get food to lower income individuals and families who may need a little extra help during the holiday season. While this is quite transparent, it may come as a surprise to some just how many people the food drive benefits. David Reed of Food for People explains “one in five kids face hunger, and that’s more than 13 million children nationwide and almost 6,000 children here in Humboldt County – in some of our local school districts, more than 80 percent of kids qualify for free and reduced lunches.”
Students at Arcata high are involved in the event, beyond just bringing in cans for the competition. Junior Aaron Sanford has volunteered lots of his time over the past couple weeks, advertising and promoting the food drive at the high school and in the community. “The food drive officially began on December 3rd, but we have been working for weeks before, distributing bins and boxes,” Sanford said.
In recent years, Mr. Godinez has been a consistent winner of the competition at Arcata High. “Whichever class brings in the most cans gets the funner final, meaning a little more hands on and computer based rather than a traditional paper test.” This year saw an upset for the winning class. Mr. Hoffman won the competition this year with Godinez as a close second. Mr. Gaskell and Mrs. Corriel nearly tied for third place, however Gaskell came out on top.
Mckinleyville high school won again this year in the competition among the schools. However, Arcata did much better this year compared to previous years. The Humboldt county food drive as a whole raised over 45,000 pounds of food to help individuals and families in need this holiday season.
