Photo Credit: Katie Woods

A poster in Pride Hall illustrates the school's total in relation to its goal.

This year, M-A set its canned food drive goal at an ambitious 77,000 cans, yet as the drive came to a close, we tallied in at a disappointing 40,076.

Some speculate that the food drive fell short because of an overall lack of school spirit. This year an undeniably low number of students went canning, and more canning shifts were left blank than ever before.

“Last year, the entire wall in the leadership room was filled [with sign ups to go] canning,” says junior Jenna Swartz. “I remember some people went canning over ten times. The entire school was very invested.”

There are several factors that could have contributed to this lack of student involvement: stressful workloads, fall sports teams advancing to the playoffs, and demanding after school sports practices. The most prominent reason, however, was the elimination of Live Bear News.

It seemed that the student body was uninformed about the canning opportunities, our progress toward the goal, and the end date of the drive.

Until this year, every classroom had a Live Bear News representative that would come in weekly throughout the duration of the drive, motivating the class and tracking its progress. With the elimination of a leadership class this year, there were simply not enough leadership students to be representatives and continue the system of Live Bear News. The Canned Food Drive suffered. Not only did classes lack motivation, but some classes did not participate at all.

Also, the freshmen classes floundered without a Live Bear News representative to teach them about the system of canning and the importance of the drive to M-A. Without the enthusiastic freshmen involvement, the drive lost its sense of unified energy.

“I think people felt that the drive was less accessible without Live Bear News,” comments senior Sara Orton, “That’s why people brushed it off.”

In addition to the food items, M-A raised $7,698.60, but monetary donations were not counted towards the goal as they were in previous years.

“This year’s canned food drive was less successful because we didn’t have a conversion factor for money to cans,” adds junior Dana Thomas, “So the thousands of dollars we raised didn’t contribute to the total at all.”

Outside of Menlo-Atherton students, the community as a whole was less giving this holiday season.  Students went canning for hours and regularly received well under a hundred cans, compared to previous years where it was a commonality to collect several hundred.  Some speculate that the prolonged recession has affected everyone’s giving spirit. Of course, unsuccessful canning shifts only further discouraged students to go canning.

It was a combination of factors that caused the Canned Food Drive to disappoint. Although it is easy to focus on the failure to reach our goal, we must recognize that M-A raised enough food to feed over 1,200 people this holiday season. That, in itself, is an amazing feat. Luckily, we have next year to look forward to.

“We know what went wrong, and we can improve upon those things for the years to come,” Orton adds.