In the United States, there are more than 34 million people who are food insecure, including 9 million children. According to Feeding America, Pennsylvania contributes to 1,136,400 of that number facing food insecurity, 347,720 of whom are children.

Last week, North Allegheny held its annual Canned Food Drive. The food drive was run by the Student Council and it helped give back to our community by aiding needy families.

When asked what the importance of the Canned Food Drive is, NASH teacher Mr. Karolski said that it’s important to help our neighbors in need.

“At North Allegheny, we sometimes don’t realize that there are members of our community who need a helping hand, and this is a way to provide that helping hand,” Karolski said.

Karolski went on to explain the specific reason why the Canned Food Drive is done during this time of the year.

“The food drive pairs nicely with the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, giving an opportunity for members of the school to give thanks for what they have, and hopefully, help to make the holiday season special for their neighbors,” he said.

Though it is called a Canned Food Drive, donations did not only have to be canned food, according to Student Council President David Shi. 

“The donations can be either nonperishable food or just money, which is obviously versatile and thus very useful for the food bank,” Shi said.

To help raise money and make more students aware of the food drive, the Student Council came up with the idea of encouraging students to pie their teachers in the face during their lunch periods for one dollar. The Canned Food Drive would then receive these additional donations.

The Student Council also arranged for the homeroom with the most donations to receive a donut breakfast to help motivate students to make donations. The prize went to Mrs. Volpe’s homeroom on the third floor.

Mia Hargenrader, junior at NASH, thinks that the Canned Food Drive should occur more than once during the school year.

“Hunger in the community is a struggle for people all year round, and since our school has one in the fall, we should also have one in the spring,” Hargenrader said.

Student Council vice president and head of its Service Committee, Sam Lopuszynski, said that Student Council had no specific goal they wanted to reach in donations. “

We really didn’t have a goal on what we wanted to get… we were just hoping to help the community as much as we could,” he told The Uproar.

Lopuszynski said that this year’s Canned Food Drive was successful overall.

“We ended up getting over $1,800 and about 20 boxes of food,” he said.

All proceeds from this Canned Food Drive went to the North Hills Community Food Bank to help local families that are in need.

Overall, the most important part of this Canned Food Drive is that all the donations are just in time for the holidays.