Stepping into a bustling room with the smell of food and metal dusting the air as can after can gets loaded into boxes. With volunteers setting up for the upcoming season the jingling of bells can be heard as garlands are hung throughout the community center.
Liberty’s Need
According to Missouri Hunger Atlas, an estimated number of 779,000 people are food insecure in Missouri, and approximatly 356,000 people are experiencing very low food security or hunger. On the week of Dec. 1-5, the National Honors Society(NHS), Blue Crew Crazies(BCC) and Student Council held donations for the annual Liberty Christmas Tree Program, helping families in the community get food over the holidays. After the week of donations on Monday, Dec. 8, the LPS maintenance crew went to all the school buildings to pick up the donations to bring to the Liberty Community Center to be sorted and separated for each house. According to the Liberty, Missouri, Government, “The Liberty Community Christmas Tree (LCCT) Program is designed to lend a hand to families and older adults who are facing a difficult holiday season.”
“Donating helps the community because we’re bringing in food for around the holidays. Obviously, people are hungry all year round but especially during the holidays , having your family home during the school days it can make it hard to feed your family. So to bring in food for everyone is really helpful,” NHS junior hours officer senior Enslie Dryer said.
Other than LCCT, our school has contributions madefrom others clubs and even singular students. Liberty Robotics has a winter clothing and childrens book drive with boxes set up around the school for donations. After they receive the donations they will go to the community and people in need. Another club looking for donations was Young Progressives who were looking for donations to give tpo a local food pantry from Nov. 3-14 to help in response to the lack of access to SNAP benefits. One student, senior Orion Middleton, for his senior project he did a food drive from Nov. 17-25, looking for donations of non-perishable, canned or boxed foods. Also any personal hygiene, winter gear, period products, baby formula or diapers.
Preperations
“I feel really excited for this event, excited to see how many cans and non perishable foods or items we can collect and help our community,” BCC member and NHS communications officer senior Ella Anderson said.
On Tuesday, Nov. 11, NHS, BCC and STUCO all met to recap last year, the promotion, class competition, what worked and didn’t. Then, they brainstormed new ideas like a spirit week based on different food donations. They are trying new things like a spirit week to get more students involved. Students promoted the event through posters, social media, broadcasting and word of mouth.
“It’s neat because once we’re in the room those boundaries of ‘Oh I’m an NHS student’ ‘I’m a STUCO member’ ‘I’m a Blue Crew Crazy representative’ that all kind of goes by the way side and it’s just everybody working toward a common cause,” Comegys said.
Donations
The donations NHS, BCC and STUCO need are canned and nonperishable goods like peanut butter and jelly, canned meat, canned soup and crackers, canned or dried fruit, canned vegetables, pasta sauce and pasta, dried herbs/spices and apple sauce in plastic jars. Last year, they were able to collect 1,756 cans, so the goal for this year is 2,000 cans and to get a variety of food along the way.
“We do this drive to give back to our community since they are so supportive of our school, and because we have the resources to support those in need,” NHS service officer senior Macey Magera said.
All the LPS schools participate in LCCT with NHS coordinating the food drive. LCCT sent in a list of preferred donations, and last year, they delivered three boxes to 565 homes around Liberty.
“It was all homes in the Liberty Public School district so what’s cool with this particular fundraising drive and these efforts is that it is helping the people that students are sitting in class with. It’s helping the local community,” NHS sponsor Serena Comegys said.
Sending The Gifts
So many groups, organizations and students are taking initiative and finding ways to help and give back to the community. Even one can, can help someone in need, it could be a student in your class, a friend, a coworker, anyone could need help and you could be the one to help them.
“Thanksgiving and Christmas time are the season of giving, so we like to take this time to give back to our community through food donations,” Magera said.
Donations can be delivered to The View at a class table: 9, 10, 11, 12. A second way to donate is at Blue & White Night on Nov. 21, the wrestling match on Dec. 2. The women’s JV basketball game on Dec. 3, and the men’s JV/Varsity basketball game on Dec. 4. The class with the most donations will win doughnuts.
