Although the current economic crisis has lead to more donations to local charities and food banks, there are more people who need the donated food more than ever. “We are serving over 108,000 people, 30 percent more than two years ago,” said Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano’s community relations manager Lisa Sherrill. “People are coming to us because they have been laid off and can’t find work or they just don’t make enough to make ends meet. In Contra Costa County, it would take four full-time minimum wage jobs to earn enough for the basic necessities.” Approximately 33 percent of the people served at the local Contra Costa and Solano county Food Bank are children.

Las Lomas helped the cause with its annual Food Drive, which ran from Nov. 9 through Nov. 20. According to Community Service Commissioner Natalie Herndon, the school raised 2200 pounds of food this year. “With the shape of the economy, this year we were not expecting a very big food drive, but we were pleasantly surprised,” said Herndon. “The student body really helped out at a time when the food banks need it most. And I wish everyone could understand how grateful the Contra Costa Food Bank is for all donations.”

Junior Anna Jameson spent long hours along with the Community Service Board to help make this year’s Food Drive the best it could be. “Planning the food drive was a lot of fun and hard work,” said Jameson. “We visited the food bank for ideas and were able to put a lot of those ideas in action.”

Leadership separately rewarded the two classes that brought in the most cans and the most money for the Food Drive with a pizza party.

James Morgan’s Chemistry class raised over 1,700 cans, winning the pizza party. “I was very proud of how my class raised to the challenge. They were truly Knights,” said Morgan. “I have a history of winning the can food drive in my previous teaching assignment. It was for a great cause and I was able to crush Mr. Schreiber class like a bug.”

Sophomore Miranda Fulks donated 40 cans, contributing to the class’s win. According to a text, Fulks said, “We were proud we won. We brought in so many cans. Most of us brought like 40 cans each. And it felt good to donate and help a lot of people out.”

Japanese teacher Andrew Schreiber’s Japanese 3 class also won a pizza party for bringing in the most money among all of the classes. “My classes in the past have chosen to donate; however, this year was very special,” said Schreiber. “With many parents and families being hit by the financial downturn, to donate to people in need is wonderful”.

By Erin Weckel, guest blogger and Los Lomas student

California High School’s Interact Club annually runs a “Trick or Treating for Cans” food drive and donates the food to the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano. This year, the food drive was completed with the help of three clubs from Cal High: Interact, Key Club, and the National Honor Society. A goal of this food drive was also to cover an even larger area than the previous years in order to obtain more food.

The food drive started out with the bag assembly. With the help of the Food Bank, Cal High was given around 5,000 plain, brown paper bags. The volunteers of the clubs grabbed a couple of staplers and began stapling flyers onto the paper bags. The flyer announced the food drive and what foods were needed. Next week, all the bags were handed around San Ramon and the households were given one week to fill up the bag. After that week was up, the clubs drove around San Ramon, picking up the bags of food. Once all this was done, the Food Bank drove the truck to Cal High and picked up all the food.

The total amount of food collected was 5,216 pounds! Christina, representing Cal High, was recognized on CBS5 (photo above), for the work that she and the three clubs did to help our neighbors in need!