Once a pair of dynamic Huntington High School seniors learned that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a serious drop in the inventory of local food pantries that the area’s hungry rely on daily, Jennifer Low and Anna Wickey mobilized, co-chairing a food drive through St. John’s Episcopal Church.
The two teenagers reached out to many local organizations as well as clubs at Huntington High School. They contacted the advisors and student leaders of the Key Club, National Honor Society, Interact, Huntington Robotics and the Blue Devil marching band, which provided advertising assistance. The Huntington Rotary Club also played a key role in spreading the word about the drive throughout the community.
The two dynamic Huntington seniors helped replenish the barren shelves of local food pantries.
“After seeing the amount of need in our community during these hard times, we wanted to make sure we were doing our part in helping those in need,” Ms. Low said. “We saw that many local food banks were struggling to keep up with demand, so we knew we had to do something about it.”
The food drive proved to be wildly successful, with dozens of bags and boxes of non-perishables, paper goods, baby products and other items collected. About $250 in cash was also donated by community members, an amount the St. John’s youth group plans to match.
All proceeds from the drive were donated to local food banks, including the Community Food Council and the Helping Hand Rescue Mission.
Several other Huntington students helped spread the word by posting on social media and sharing the information with friends and family.
Ms. Low and Ms. Wickey are lifelong best friends. The two seniors are both headed to Temple University in the fall. They have spent a significant amount of time during the past four years of high school volunteering in the Huntington community and they have co-chaired several past food drives.
“These food drives are always so incredibly rewarding and it’s so great to see the community come together to make a difference,” Ms. Wickey said. “With the amount of food and supplies we collected in just one day, numerous families will be able to put food on their tables for several days. It’s so important for people to give back, especially during this pandemic.”
The two energetic seniors are already planning another food drive in the near future since the need to restock the barren shelves of local pantries is an ongoing quest.