The annual GHS food drive is this week and the Student Council needs the help of students to make it successful. Each day of the week there will be a theme for what foods to bring. It will be a competition between grades and they will earn points based on the  ounces of the products they bring. 

All things that are brought in for the food drive will be donated to the Gretna Neighbors Food Pantry for families in need. The Gretna school district has been responsible for donating about 10,000 pounds of products to the pantry in years prior. However, all of this does not just happen on its own, there is a great amount of work and preparation needed to make the drive successful each year. 

“We plan about three months out with all the other schools that might be doing a Gretna food drive to benefit the Gretna communities food pantry,” student council advisor Mrs. Anita O’Neill said. “Planning ahead helps us to become more aware of the needs in our community and also honor our veterans with our donations.”

Part of those preparations are creating themes to make the drive more fun and create more variety within the items donated. 

The themes for each day of the food drive are as follows:

• Monday- Dinner Night
• Tuesday- Household Items 
• Wednesday- Breakfast
• Thursday- Baked Goods 
• Friday- Clean Out the Pantry

Besides simple preparations, the student council puts in work throughout the week. They advertise to help bring attention to the event and encourage students and their families to donate, as well as counting the items and boxing it all up to be donated.

There are many ways that students can help the Gretna community. Whether it is donating to the food drive or finding other ways to help, any act has the potential to make a difference in the life of someone in the community.

“For the most part, what we really need are donations of food, but at the end of the day on Friday all of the student council members have to count and load all of the food into a truck,” student council vice president junior Libby Turpen said. “We could always use more helping hands. Students also could help by spreading awareness by reposting the Instagram post on their stories.”

Families benefit greatly from the donations made at the food drive, especially around the holidays. Any and all products donated help families in need.