This year's Student Hunger Drive is now over. On Thursday, students from 17 high schools brought the food they've collected during the past six weeks to the River Bend Foodbank in Davenport.
The final tally is 424, 845 pounds of food.
From Pleasant Valley High School, Hayley Germain says the student council led this year's effort and collected more than 50,000 pounds - more than double last year's.
"We had a competition called 'Spartan Survivor' based on the popular tv show 'Survivor.' And we had teachers getting voted off the island every week and we had different incentives to try to keep your teacher on the island. People pledged money or they brought cans. Teachers with the most cans got to make it to the end of the week and then we narrowed it down to the top five teachers."
And she calls the Hunger Drive a good way for the students to give back to the community.
Grateful for the help each year is Mike Miller, president and ceo of the food bank.
"But the biggest thing is the legacy that this creates for our community. We've taught an entire generation of kids now about philanthropy, about the issue of hunger, and the importance of taking care of people beyond ourselves."
Miller says the River Bend Foodbank now distributes more than 15 million pounds of food a year, to 300 food pantries, in 23 Iowa and Illinois counties.
