Morton East students present canned food drives —  and collected ____________ canned and dry foods for donation to families in need this holiday.

In a quick survey of 100 students, only ¼ of them knew Morton East had a food drive or had donated food to one.

Morton East students discuss food drives and the impacts they have on people.

In the Cicero community, where most Morton East students live, there are about 52 food pantries available for people, including schools, churches, stores, and regular food drives. Despite over 50 food pantries existing, almost all of them are open during the Thanksgiving and Christmas season, which is when most families struggle to put food on the table. On average, people spend a little less than $400 on Thanksgiving food. This might not seem like a lot, but when put in big numbers, 1 in 8 million people don’t eat or don’t have enough money to eat.

Morton East students share their opinions or experiences with food drives.

“I’ve seen food drives before, but I haven’t really seen any after Covid; it’s like they shut down or stopped helping people,” said sophomore Manuel Robles.

Many people have seen food drives before and have used them to their maximum benefit.

“Unfortunately, my family, including my aunts and uncles, had a hard time during Covid because my parents are landscape workers, so during the pandemic, there wasn’t really any work. Thankfully, we had food drives to help us out,” said senior Isaias James.

There are families in the Cicero community who needed food drives to survive, but some people were fortunate not to need them.

“I never really donated or used food drives that I’m aware of, but I always saw churches have long lines outside of the building where people were waiting for food,” said Senior Johnathan Sejas.

Morton East students have heard of regular food drives and church food drives, but many didn’t know Morton East had a food drive.

“I’ve heard and seen food drives before. I didn’t know Morton East had a food drive; all I saw is people seek rice crispy and tamales. I didn’t know about food drives,” said Junior Javier Flores.

Although many people have gotten help from food drives, only a few have donated to them.

“My grandma used food drives when my parents were growing up. So now that she has the ability to help, she makes it a hobby to donate canned pineapple, corn, and even beans to food drives whenever she doesn’t use them or they’re about to go bad,” said Senior Angel Rodriguez.

Morton East has canned food drives every year for Thanksgiving and donated over 2000 canned goods last year.

“Last year, the student council collected more than 2,000 cans for the food drive,” said student council leader Angelica Valdez.

Many people wonder the skepticism park for food drives where they don’t thing food makes it to people.

“Yes! They all go to the Charities Archdiocese of Chicago, the Cicero location.” Said Angelica Valdez

Morton East High School Social worker also helped show us that Food Drives also give to Morton East Students.

”Yes they’re are plenty of locations that Morton East sends canned food too, there are a numerous amount of food canned in the Cicero/Berwyn area” Social Worker Joscelyn Rivera said.

All Food Drives have different requirements and questions that have to be answered for you to be available to get Food from all the locations so make sure to call before arriving.