As the end of November nears and the holiday season begins, local charities and food banks have a higher need and demand for common household items and food. In order to encourage participation from the students, Interact Club, the student subset of Oakwood Rotary, held a food drive in high school homeroom classes. Items collected for the drive included macaroni and cheese, fruit cups, and prepared pudding. This year’s program of choice is the Kettering Backpack Program. The program’s goal is to gather food donations for impoverished kids in the Kettering school system.

Rebecca Veneman, a French teacher at Oakwood High School, has been the adviser of the group for three years.

“We chose the Kettering Backpack Program because Kettering is right next door,” Veneman said. “It’s definitely a great way to help out another community that is right near ours.”

The Kettering Backpack Program works to give food items to those students in the Kettering school districts that often go the entire weekend without food.

“Teachers would notice that students would come in Monday morning hungry and not able to focus,” Veneman said. “So they started this program where discreetly they put some food items in a little backpack and leave the backpack somewhere at school for the student where they can get it and they take it home.”

The student members involved in Interact are heavily invested in serving others. This year is sophomore Ella Gould’s first as a member and treasurer of Interact Club. Gould feels that The Kettering Backpack Program was a great organization to work with.

“Food is a basic necessity, so to help make sure kids just like us are provided with that basic necessity is important to us,” Gould said.

This was the first year Interact collaborated with the Kettering Backpack Program. Though the group wasn’t sure how much food they would receive, they found themselves pleasantly surprised and encouraged by the participation of the student body.

“We did wind up getting quite a few donations,” Veneman said. “Hopefully it is something we can continue to do year after year and more students here at Oakwood get to hear about it.”

President of Interact and senior Mia Gorman as well as her fellow club members encouraged student participation by promising treats to the classes that donated the most. Along with the students, faculty was more than willing to help contribute to the cause.

“We encouraged students to donate through incentives like pizza parties and homemade chocolate chip cookies, but a lot of donations were made due to teachers who were very passionate about the good work that the Kettering Backpack program does,” Gorman said.

Gould likewise believes a successful practice to receive donations is facilitating friendly competition between students. As a result, members were pleased with the amount they received.

“This year we were very happy with our amount of donations, but are always hoping for more,” Gould said.

Interact club, along with their fall fundraising effort, is continually focused on volunteer work and charitable efforts all year around the community. Gorman testified to the group’s continual appreciation toward their collective goal of serving others.

“Interact fundraises at various times throughout the year for different organizations depending on seasons and opportunities,” Gorman said. “A yearly tradition for Interact is volunteering at Rotary’s That Day in May Parade and Carnival.”

Students and Oakwood families are encouraged to keep their eyes and ears open for more fundraisers like these throughout the year.