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Park City High School honors students organize district-wide food drive with World Cup theme

Park City High School food drive
Park City High School food drive

Park City National Honor Society students are hard at work this month with their annual food and need drive. Sophomore Amelia Grisham and senior Alex Katz stopped by KPCW to explain what they’re collecting and how they’re getting their peers involved.

In Park City, putting a large-scale food drive in the hands of high schoolers means years of success and tens of thousands of pounds of donated goods collected every year. It also means ambitious growth goals and strategies to make it happen.

Last year’s honor society club drive collected 35,000 pounds of donations, which the Christian Center of Park City then distributed. This year, the goal is 50,000 pounds. National Honor Society club member Amelia Grisham explained why.

“So that's a little more than last year but we're really up the goal not just to outdo ourselves but to help more members in the community as the need has gone up from previous years," she said.

Alex Katz, who helped with last year’s drive, said they're getting elementary schools involved this year for the first time.

“So we're trying to get like the whole community involved as opposed to just the high school so we've contacted their principals and we've put bins outside of these elementary schools to have people participate," Katz said. "We have these neighborhood fliers that we pass out to all the neighborhoods so like all kids and their parents can see like what we're doing.”

Students will also be stationed in front of The Fresh Market, Smith’s and The Market Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. They’ll collect food donations or financial contributions through Venmo.

The drive isn’t just collecting food. There’s a significant need in the community for pet food and basics like shampoo, toothpaste and especially feminine hygiene products. The drive will also accept clothing that is new.

On the drive's final day, it will accept perishable items such as turkeys.

The club has upped the ante at the high school, creating teams and a competition modeled on the World Cup. Students on teams named after countries competing in World Cup soccer are vying to get the most points by gathering more donations than other teams. Hallways and classrooms are decorated by teams and the winning team will get a party featuring food from the country their team represents.

“I think it's a friendly competition in a way to get kids to donate more and really get in the spirit of the food drive at the high school,” she said.

The drive runs through Dec 15. The next day, club members, with an assist from the Christian Center trucks, will bring everything to the high school to pack it into crates.

Katz said the crate packing is a tremendous amount of work but the half-day of labor is fun and rewarding.

“I know Park City is such a giving community but it shocks me every year how much we can do when everyone comes together,” she said. “It honestly - also it's really rewarding to like - not even just rewarding - but it shocks me to see how much like, even just other high school people bring in when everyone's motivated to like do and like has the same goal. I think it's really cool to see everyone like come together so that always surprises me.”

For more information or to help, contact Park City High School or stop by one of the grocery stores.