After hours of planning and preparation from the Lincoln Southeast (LSE) Student Council, they were able to successfully provide over 18,000 meals in just under a month with their donations gained during the Food Drive. Dylan Cork (12), the treasurer of LSE Student Council, played a key role in putting on the food drive. There’s a lot that goes into putting on a successful food drive and with COVID-19 it didn’t become any easier, but with the impact the food drive has on the community, the Student Council decided to continue the tradition.

Between communication with the food bank, advertising the event, and making it as successful as possible, the Student Council has a lot on their plate. After putting on food drives for over ten years at LSE, the Student Council has learned a thing or two about it.

“Luckily a lot was already set up from previous years which made my job easier as a head of it,” Cork said. 

There’s a lot of advertising aspects to the Food Drive, and the Student Council usually tries to offer some sort of competition in order to get more involvement from students and staff.

 “This year with the competition of teachers v. administration there were prizes for teachers like class covers and a ‘comfy clothes day’ to motivate them,” Cork said. 

The Food Drive is in collaboration with the food bank and so communication with them is a key role to the success of the event. Although there were similar efforts going into the Food Drive itself, there were major differences to how the event took place. 

With two new student council sponsors this year, a new principal and a pandemic going on there were undoubtedly going to be differences between this year’s Food Drive and those in previous years. In past years, the Food Bank has been able to be more involved and come directly into LSE and gather the donations, making it easier on the Student Council. 

“With the Food Bank only having 50 percent of its staff it was just another hurdle we had to go through.” Cork said.

With COVID-19 and some students still fully remote, it was very difficult to donate. Cork said that “having Julie Krueger as a new student council sponsor has brought about a lot of positive change to Food Drive.” Julie Krueger, an english teacher at LSE,  has always been a big role in the Food Drive as she has continued to be the teacher to make the largest donation and hype up the event throughout the school before she was even a sponsor. 

“Having Krueger’s energy was something we haven’t had in years previous, and having her in a lead role definitely helped a lot,” Cork said. 

Cork thinks that Krueger’s energy further brought together the teachers and administration with a friendly competition.

The Food Drive has been able to make a positive impact on the Food Bank and the people they help, but Cork believes it further grows the community at LSE.

“It feels good to be able to give back,” Cork said.

The competition and working towards the goal of helping others brings LSE together in more ways than one. 

“It’s an opportunity for the school to learn who the administrators are and for classes and teachers to work together and put their energy towards something that isn’t school,” Cork said.

Cork shared that although the Food Drive puts teachers and administrators against each other in some ways it brings the school together. Everyone donating towards the same cause and working together is why it continues to be important to LSE year after year.