Through door-to-door food collection, NHS members partook in a food drive for the De Soto Food Pantry from Wednesday, March 1 through Sunday, March 5.

Students divided into small groups of four or five to collect donations. Senior Alexa Cash found the most challenging part was overcoming people refusing to donate.

“Having to carry all the cans and put yourself out there to ask people to donate [was difficult],” Cash said. “Also, hearing people say they did not have time to donate or did not have any canned goods [was hard], because we wanted to help as much as we could and give to those who need it.”

However, Cash believes that those community members that did donate made the experience worthwhile.

“My favorite part was seeing how excited people are to donate and help in any way they can,” Cash said. “It was also great to see at the end of the day how much food we were able to collect.”

While students were out collecting, senior Emma Mantel waited at the school to help load all the food to be spent to the food pantry. Mantel was inspired to get involved with the food drive through her experience with other families without food.

“I’ve served at the [Kansas City, Kansas] food kitchen a couple of times now, and it’s crazy to me to think that we have so many nice things that we don’t need when there are people in our own community who can’t put food on the table for their families,” Mantel said. “[It’s nice] knowing that we were providing food to people who can’t necessarily afford it for themselves.”

Cash agrees, and said helping families was a major motivation for her involvement and cites NHS as a good way to find service opportunities like the food drive.

“NHS gives me great opportunities to help and get involved within my community as well as pushing me to do more good and reach a goal,” Cash said.

As for the purpose of the food drive, Mantel believes being a part of the solution is essential.

“Everyone deserves something as basic as food, regardless of their situation,” Mantel said. “I like knowing we’re helping with that problem.”