Every year, all of the schools in the Woodbridge Township School District hold the Have-A-Heart food drive. During the food drive, the goal is to collect 214 pounds of food. At FMS, students brought food to their first block teachers between mid-January and February 14, 2025. All of this food was donated to help people struggling with food insecurity.
Everyone was asked to bring in non-perishable items, or food that don’t expire quickly. Along with bringing in canned and boxed food, people could have brought hygiene products, too.
The Student Council and teachers at FMS had really placed emphasis on this event and tried to encourage students to participate. Student Council had made posters about the food drive that were hung up around the school. The food drive was also mentioned in the morning announcements in both the daily videos and Ms. Murphy’s daily messages. Finally, many teachers had also encouraged their students by giving extra credit or Falcon Feathers to students who brought items in.
To further encourage students, there was also a prize awarded to the first block class who brought in the most items. They were going to get a bowling trip! This definitely got my class participating.
On February 14, the winning class was announced at the end of the day. The top three classes with the most donations had each brought 200 or more items! However the class with the most items was Mrs. Cason’s first block class. Despite having a bit of a late start, the class was able to bring in a total of 247 items! This definitely impressed me. The way the whole class worked together was also pretty amazing. Mrs. Cason’s first block students all chatted using Google Classroom, which was pretty clever , so a big congrats to them.
On Tuesday, February 18, Mayor McCormac came to FMS to speak with the Student Council students, along with the winning class. There was an announcement made calling these students to report to the cafeteria toward the last couple of minutes. Once in the cafeteria, students were seated on the steps of the stage and got to introduce themselves on camera. Mayor McCormac also asked questions about the whole event. Then, important township members such as Ms. DeJesus were called up to share some heartfelt words.
Overall, this event was a great way to have kids come together to do something beneficial for the community.
