33rd Annual Student Hunger Drive Students from 17 Area High Schools Work to End Hunger in their Community DAVENPORT, IOWA– For the past 33 years, students from area high schools have joined River Bend Foodbank in the fight to end hunger in the Quad Cities. This year, students from 17 area high schools will participate in the Drive, which will engage them in meeting this community need, while introducing them to service and philanthropy.
Through the Drive, students rally around a significant community need – hunger – as they plan and execute their own food drives over a six-week period. They set their goals and work hard to exceed them, while enjoying a friendly competition with other area high schools. Students also learn about volunteerism through this hands-on experience.
According to Feeding America’s Map the Meal Gap Study (2017), one out of every eight individuals (and one out of every five children) struggles with food insecurity locally. They lack access to enough food to live a healthy, active lifestyle. Hunger continues to be a prevalent issue and needs a community-wide effort in order to solve the issue.
The Drive presents a special opportunity for the students to become a greater part of the community-wide effort to solve hunger. Students collect items in a variety of ways, from going door-to-door in the community to holding special events to raise money that they then use to purchase food. Students package the collected food and deliver it to River Bend Foodbank’s warehouse.
Every year, participating schools are challenged to not only exceed their previous years’ total, but also to compete amongst other high schools. Amounts are totaled in pounds of food donated and charted to watch for progress and to encourage and celebrate each school’s participation. In recent years, students shifted their focus from winning a competition to the nutritional quality of the food they are collecting for their hungry classmates.
2018 Student Hunger Drive event schedule:
• Monday, September 24th – Kick-Off Party, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. to be held at River Bend Foodbank, 4010 Kimmel Drive, Davenport, Iowa.
• Saturday, October 6 th – Student Hunger Drive Mobile Food Pantry, 9:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. to be held at Friends Church, 1915 Ridgeview Drive, Davenport, Iowa.
• Thursday, November 1 st – Loading Day, 8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. at River Bend Foodbank, 4010 Kimmel Drive, Davenport, Iowa.
• Thursday, November 1 st – Finale Rally, 5:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m., River Bend Foodbank, 4010 Kimmel Drive, Davenport, Iowa.
2018 Student Hunger Drive sponsors: Bechtel Trust, John Deere Foundation, Arconic, Hubbell-Waterman, Moline Foundation, Regional Development Authority, Scott County Regional Authority, Hy-Vee, Lujack Hiline of the Quad Cities, iHeartMedia – Quad Cities, WQAD
About River Bend Foodbank – The Foodbank is the largest hunger relief organization in the Quad Cities and surrounding communities, having distributed over 13.4 million meals in 2017 to hungry people in eastern Iowa and western Illinois. Our mission is to lead the community-wide effort to end hunger in Iowa and Illinois. We do this through food distribution in partnership with our 300 agencies as well as our Mobile Pantries, Senior Pantries, Backpack Program, and Student Hunger Drive. The best and easiest way to help is to go online: visit us at riverbendfoodbank.org.
