Each year, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School hosts its annual Harvest Drive, an event designed to collect food, gently worn clothing and other necessities for underprivileged families. In order to achieve their goal of giving to those in need, the Harvest Drive organization has 13 different school-based distribution centers working with 190 Broward County Public Schools, one of which is MSD.

Key Club hosted MSD’s Harvest Drive this year, as opposed to previous years when Student Government Association and their sponsor Danielle Driscoll hosted the event.

“Since Mrs. Driscoll is on maternity leave, she reached out us since we have a really big club,” Key Club Sponsor Sarah Howell said. “She figured that since we have so many members, it would be easier for us to run it than any other club.”

The collection of goods took place from Monday, Oct. 31 to Friday, Nov. 4 and included boxed breakfast items, canned goods, stuffing and drink packets. Students gave their donations to their first or fifth-period teachers. They were sent to the collection center at Westglades Middle School.

“We asked all the clubs and teachers at school to donate to the Harvest Drive,” Key Club Vice President Jessie Stein said. “Many of them participated and helped us collect over 60 large boxes of non-perishable foods.”

The National Honor Society was one of the many clubs participating in the Harvest Drive. They gave out NHS service hours to their members who donated goods to their adviser, Lisa Hitchock’s, classroom. Students received half an hour of credit for every two items donated and could earn up to a total of five donation hours. Howell also gave out service hours to her students that donated to the Harvest Drive.

After collecting the items from students and other clubs, Howell and the members of Key Club stored the boxes of donated items in her classroom. They ended with 64 boxes worth of goods.

This story was originally published in the December 2022 Eagle Eye print edition.