Waller JH Collects Food
Serving its community is an important part of Waller Junior High’s (WJH) culture. For Thanksgiving, students decided to collect canned food to support the local community. In the end, they donated over 400 items of canned food. The food drive was a part of Student Council’s community service projects for the season. All the items were donated to local families and Family Ties Resource Services for their Thanksgiving baskets.
“It's absolutely important for the kids to be involved in community service and other events,” Student Council Sponsor Hannah Caniff said. “It helps kids realize how good it feels to help other people.”
The canned food drive was a schoolwide event with Student Council members advertising it during their advisory period. To motivate students to participate, Caniff decided to hold a donut party for the top two classes that collected food and the top three students would get to pie a teacher of their choosing in the face. To keep track of who donated the most items, students turned in the food to their advisory teacher. Once the collection time ended, teachers turned in the canned food to Student Council.
“It was just something that my co-sponsor Shauntanay Blair and I talked about. We wanted the kids to bring cans, so those were our incentives,” Caniff said. “Kids love getting to pie their teachers, especially if they get to pick them!”
The top winning classes were Nancy Kunkel’s with 175 cans and Savannah Nichols’ with 126 cans. The winning students were Lauren Bolcik donating 150 cans, Dylan Purcell with 48 cans, and Kaleb Roberts with 42 cans. The lucky teachers they chose to pie were Kunkel, Azereth Alanis, and Jacqueline Diaz.
“I talked with my students on how everyone struggles and sometimes you just need a little bit of help,” Nichols said. “We agreed that even if they couldn’t donate a lot, something small could still make a difference. Every one of my students donated at least one item and I am so proud of them.”