Northwood held its annual canned food drive from Nov. 16-20 to donate food to the less fortunate.

Throughout the week, students were encouraged to bring canned goods to school and drop them off in a bin corresponding to their TA. Instead of allowing students to collect cans within their respective TAs each day until the end of the week, collection was done outside to follow COVID-19 regulations.

“The food drive lets us support others in a really simple way,” junior Amanda Carlson said. “We don’t have to put in a lot of effort to donate food, but when everything from the drive is compiled, it’s enough to make a big impact on the people who need it.”

To encourage students to bring more cans, ASB ran the food drive as a TA competition in which the TA that brought the most cans at the end of the week won Nothing Bundt Cakes. This friendly competition helped bring in more cans and made the students feel like a team trying to achieve a common goal. Math teacher Ann Doan’s TA won the contest, bringing 114 of the 375 cans.

“The food drive is important because it is so crucial to give back during hard times like these,” sophomore Sohani Pawan said. “Using this opportunity to give back to the community is something that can make the school feel more connected even when we’re not really together.”

While the competition brought some fun into the drive, many students participated simply for the sake of giving back to their community during difficult times.

“I donated to the canned food drive because nobody deserves to go hungry,” senior Ryan Talebi said. “With everything going on right now, it’s nice to know that we can adjust accordingly to keep up a schoolwide tradition that helps people in need.”