The West High Hunger Drive went out with a bang after the Falcons discovered that they won second place for Division A in the Quad Cities Student Hunger Drive competition. Student senate plays a large role in ensuring that the hunger drive runs smoothly.

“[Student senate] participates in Student Hunger Drive by planning events for West. If you hear about any events happening, in or outside of school, we probably planned it,” junior and student senate member Presley Roseman said.

The student senate held several events to raise awareness throughout the semester, including a hunger drive pep aud, a lip sync battle, a “pie-in-the-face” competition and senate members passed out flyers about donating to the cause, to homes located near West.

Of the events held, the lip sync battle seemed to be the most popular among students. It was organized by sophomore student council member Emily Brooks and held on Nov. 7 in the West auditorium. Students and staff performed on stage, while monetary donations were passed in from the audience. A group of seniors ultimately won the coveted title of lip sync champions.

At the end of the lip sync battle, the teacher who collected the most donations recieved a pie to the face. The winner of the competition was math teacher Jared Perez.

“I was hoping that the pie was going to taste good, but I mostly didn’t want it to get on my clothes. I had no idea that I was going to be the one to get the pie thrown in my face until they called me down there,” Perez said.

After about a month of raising awareness, encouraging the student body to donate, and collecting cans, the student senate spent their day on Thursday, Nov. 9 delivering the donations to River Bend Food Bank.

A total of 59,526 pounds of food were donated by West alone, which equals 34.97 pounds per student. 49,343 meals will be served to hungry citizens thanks to the donations made by West students, families and staff.

“Being able to help people makes me feel like I am positively impacting our town, which is what we need right now,” freshman and student senate member Brianna Blake said.

This year, West saw an increase of 55.10 percent in donations. However, senate is hopeful for even higher numbers in the future.

“To encourage kids to donate, I would say ‘Do you feel that receiving an education is important? Is it easy for you to concentrate if you haven’t eaten all day? Would you be more likely to not come to school if you hadn’t eaten all week?’. I would then explain that some students in their own classrooms face those challenges every single day. By donating even one can, you can help a student receive a better education and I think that is an important thing to notice,” Roseman said.