GCHS Helps Smack Down Hunger in Scott County
Students work to prepare their display of collected items before the annual canned food drive assembly at GCHS.
January 12, 2022
Hunger is an everyday issue that can occur unfortunately all around the world, including in Georgetown. One tradition for Scott County Schools is the canned food drive where students can bring in donated items for those in need. Donations are given to the AMEN House, a local agency whose mission is to end hunger.
Emilee Wiler, FFA adviser, explained “When we collect cans they go to the AMEN House. What we collect through the drive supports their mission for several months.” This year, Wiler set the school goal to be 16,000. Helping out our community getting students fired up. That makes my heart feel good when I see them getting passionate. — Amanda Sunda, GCHS social studies teacher
During November, GCHS staff works to motivate students to bring in as many items as possible. One popular rivalry is between teams led by staff members Amanda Sunda and Nick Maxwell. Sunda said, “Mr. Maxwell was a part of this well before I started at Scott County. During my 4th year of teaching, he recruited me because he needed some competition, and then we started to compete back and forth. Thus Sunda Nation and Maxwell Mafia was born.”
Maxwell and Sunda and their teams help rally the larger Georgetown community to be generous, and they are often spotted at local stores collecting cans from individuals as they shop. Since the AMEN House supports the entire community, it truly is a team effort.
Sunda is passionate about serving the community. She said, “Helping out our community getting students fired up. That makes my heart feel good when I see them getting passionate.”
Lily Batten, sophomore, was glad to participate. “I think the can food drive is for a very good cause because it really helps the community. I’m really passionate about helping others, making sure they get everything they need.” She helped the drive by trick-or-treating for cans instead of candy and was able to gather 200 that way.
The annual assembly for students was able to return to GCHS this year after a one year pause due to the pandemic. Michele Carlise, executive director for the AMEN House, was present to greet students, to accept their donations and to announce the grand total collected for this year. Everyone in the gym was impressed to hear that students donated 20,182 food items and left knowing that they had helped many families this Thanksgiving.
