Liberty’s Snowcoming food drive was once a beloved competition. Students worked with their classmates to donate cans and packages of food, one year even filling an entire U-Haul truck with supplies for those facing food insecurity.
The reason for the frenzy? Extra credit. To encourage students, teachers offered their classes grade boosts if they donated more than others.
“We would get thousands and thousands of items, pounds and pounds of food, because kids could get extra credit,” Associated Student Body advisor Michelle Munson said.
District policy, however, put a stop to the competition.
“Even though it was for a good cause, students can’t buy their grades,” Munson said. “And when the extra credit went away, so did the drive.”
But this year, sophomores David Coughlan and Michael Peterson have revived the once-beloved tradition.
“We mostly just wanted to do something for the community. Liberty hasn’t had a food drive for a while, especially on a big scale, and we wanted to fill that opportunity,” Coughlan said.
The two sophomores organized the drive for their “passion project,” something that all students taking the Leadership class with Munson are required to undertake.
“Students find something they’re passionate about and bring it to life,” Munson said of the project. “These two really wanted to give to those in need during the holiday season.”
“We’ve partnered with Renewal Food Bank in Bellevue for the drive,” Peterson said. Renewal is a local nonprofit that works with local grocery stores and donors to give free food to those in need. Since its founding in 1998, Renewal has worked to provide food and hygiene supplies to over 1,500 people per week in the King County area.
For Renewal and the people it serves, every donation counts. Because of that, Coughlan and Peterson are full of enthusiasm.
“Our goal is really just to fill as many bins as possible. We want to donate as much food as we can,” Coughlan said.
Munson shares his optimism.
“Even though they can’t get extra credit anymore, I hope that students will still be motivated to give to the community,” she said.
At the end of the day, food drives are about helping people. Especially during the holiday season, they’re a way for us to give back to the community that gives so much to us.
And as it turns out, Liberty rose to the challenge: despite power outages and closed schools, over 150 pounds of food were donated for the drive.
“I hope that the passion David and Michael have for this project continues beyond them,” Munson said. “This project may start small, but it has the potential to become something much greater.”
