In October, 2010, RB held a food drive centered around the Day of Service. For two weeks, collection bins were set up around the school, and students donated over 1,800 items. On the actual day of Service, the items were organized and donated to the Greater Chicago Food Depository. No one was expecting nationwide recognition for it.
However, that’s exactly what RB got. The Schools Fight Hunger program has awarded RB a National School of Distinction status, which is given to schools which are notably enthusiastic, creative, or dedicated to the hunger cause. Fewer than 2,000 schools in the 2010-2011 school year received this recognition.
“The students, staff, and administration of Riverside Brookfield High School are honored to be recognized by Schools Fight Hunger for our 2010 food drive,” said social studies teacher, Rachel Bernstein, who was one of the driving forces behind the food drive. “We are very proud of our collection last year; it is one of the many examples of Bulldogs caring about others,” she said.
Also greatly involved was then-junior Mary Heer. She created signs and fliers, helped to set up boxes, and made announcements about the food drive. “I just love helping out people,” she said.
According to her, the best part of the event was the collecting of all the food. “It’s fun flagging down people with canned goods,” she said.
Heer had one reaction to RB becoming a National School of Distinction: “awesome.” Then she added, “It’s awesome that I was a part of that and I could help out the community.”
Another person who helped out on the Day of Service was English teacher John Izaguirre, who collected the boxes of food from around the school. “It was a cool thing to see kids get involved and be excited about giving back,” he said.
He also said that it was important that the Day of Service is “not just giving back to the homes and sprucing them up, making them look nice, it’s giving back to the food pantries too.”
About RB’s recognition, he said “It’s an awesome distinction, and sometimes because we’re a small school we don’t get a lot of distinction. Winning stuff like that puts RB on the map in terms or caring and giving back.”
However, despite last year’s success, the fact that the Day of Service has become the Month of Service means that no food drive was planned for this year.
“It hasn’t been planned at this time, but it’s something we’d love to do again,” said Bernstein. “If we do [Month of Service] again, a food drive would definitely be a good thing to consider.”
Heer is looking for a positive angle to it. “It sucks, but there are other food drives and we helped out last year,” she said.
Similarly, Izaguirre said, “Sometimes things happen and we just need to take a step back and regroup, and we’ll come back and do it next year.”
