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.
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Cicero and East help holidays with food drives
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Marco's New Car Over the Summer
According to Marco, the work life during the summer is not as bad as you think.
Marco's summer was not very preferable. He lost his most recent car in an accident, leaving him without a car. However, it only made him hustle even more. Marco was working hard to get a new car before school started. He needed the car for both school and work, and using Ubers was not going to be cheap. Only 3 out of 10 students have cars at Morton East High School.
"I felt like I had everything I could've wanted, but nothing lasts forever," Marco said.
When Marco had his old car, he was driving everywhere and even used it for school last year. He did everything but forgot to step back and be appreciative.
"I didn't realize how good I had it; I was always focused on what was next rather than appreciating what I had," Marco said.
Paola Mendez’s summer trip to Mexico with water parks and Colgate toothpaste is definitely a way to spend summer vacation before school.
According to Paola, a good way to spend a fun summer is a vacation in Mexico. One of her favorite things in Mexico was the water. She visited beaches, water parks, and rivers in the span of 3 weeks with her mother, Aunt, and 3 of her siblings. Out of 10 people that were asked if they’d visit Mexico every single person said yes.
“It was weird the water in Mexico was either really cold or it was salt water I always tried to guess before getting in,” Paola said.
When Paola would swim in salt water, she would accidentally get some in her mouth were she had serious hatred for it because the taste was just disgusting.
“When I had the saltwater taste in my mouth the first time, I remembered to always carry toothpaste and a toothbrush with me, I used Colgate toothpaste there wasn’t any other brands,” Paola said.
Alexa J Ochoa • Nov 27, 2023 at 9:15 am
Food drives do really help upon certain situations and some people don’t do it but it’s a helpful way to help people and the cheapest way to help starving families in need.
Alexa • Nov 27, 2023 at 9:02 am
I agree with most of the article but however most people actually don’t go to these places based on the ideas and what you said was true unfortunately most people think it’s too much or even have negative ideas about it I like the facts you have though since they are true.