Throughout November, Terrace students watch as the back end of the HUB is gradually filled with canned and boxed food items donated by students, staff and community members. This occurs each year as a result of the annual food drive organized by the ASB for the Concern for Neighbors Food Bank in Mountlake Terrace. The food bank serves an estimated 100 to 115 local families each week.
Additionally, the food drive functions as a yearly competition between MTHS and Lynnwood High School to see who can collect the most food for local food banks. The winner of the food drive competition will be announced at the Pursuit of the Power Plunger basketball game on Friday, Jan. 24. Until then, the official count of food collected by each school is being kept secret.
The basketball game will feature the PPP competition, in which the two winning PPP teams from each school make contraptions out of various objects and race them by propelling themselves with a toilet plunger. The competition, scored based on the results of the races and school spirit shown, serves as a friendly contest between the rivals.
The food drive also serves as a competition between classes, and the class that donates the most to the food drive will receive $500 for their class prom fund. The winner of this year’s food drive competition was the junior class.
Throughout the drive, ASB members worked to increase the number of donations by running donation drives in front of local stores to collect food from customers.
Executive ASB Treasurer Preston Thrush was impressed by the level of participation by the various class ASB groups at Terrace. Still, he also believes that the school community as a whole should have been more involved in the process.
“We had a lot of cans raised by the classes. I felt that the school as a whole could have participated more, but [ASB] could have done a better job at involving the school, such as by collecting more cans during lunch,” Thrush said.
Although official counts cannot yet be revealed, Thrush believes that once the final count is conducted, Terrace will end up with a higher amount than was collected during last year’s food drive.
