With Thanksgiving just around the corner, Davie High’s Student Council is back with yet another festive and charitable event. The holiday season can be stressful for those who are not financially well off. Due to the increased number of families that need assistance this year, the Student Council Club thought it made perfect sense to revamp their annual canned food drive to support families in need. Enter “Gobble Goodies.”
Student Council will accept cash and canned food through November 25. In exchange, the charitable donor will receive a small bag of candy, hence the “goodies.”
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, approximately 13.5% of households in the U.S. experience food insecurity. With this in mind, Student Council usually organizes some sort of canned food drive each year, often with a reward for the grades that brought in the largest amount of donations. In recent years, however, the canned food drive received significantly less traction. The club knew something would have to change this year. Laura Doub, AP United States history teacher and Student Council advisor, told The Talon about how they turned things around.
“We really wanted to make this a big deal and really kind of emphasize throughout our promotion that this goes to feed your friends, your classmates, your community who may not be receiving what they need or what they usually receive,” Doub said.
Doub herself was a part of Student Council in high school, but she admits that they had never done anything similar to the food drive. She says that most of their events were related to homecoming or dances. Doub also laughed about how much social media has benefited this year’s food drive.
“Really, before the days of social media and smartphones, all you had was black and white flyers that would hang up around school and posters,” Doub said. “And of course, we had maybe one color printer for the whole school, if it was working.”
Student Council is known for its amusing and timely promotional videos, most including a recurring joke on social media or a niche reference to popular movies. In order to promote Gobble Goodies, the Student Council posted an Instagram Reel featuring two members, where they outlined the dates for the canned food drive to Quad City DJ’s Space Jam. The club’s Instagram acts as an advertising platform for all of the club’s events, and is responsible for a lot of the traction surrounding Gobble Goodies.
While Student Council has been doing food drives for years, this one is distinct, and it isn’t just the catchy title and colorful banner. Collin Ferebee, science teacher and long-standing advisor of the club, noticed a dwindling number of participants in not only the food drive, but in Student Council itself. He used last year as a way to “reset” the club; with that, he reorganized and removed people who were not contributing. Additionally, Doub also joined the team and assisted in putting together the events. Ferebee emphasizes that since the rebrand, the club has thrived, especially in their donations. He was especially impressed when on only the launch day of Gobble Goodies, they had over 100 cans by the end of the day.
“A hundred’s not a ton, you know, we have a lot of people here,” Ferebee said. “But a hundred on day one of a new thing left me pretty positive about the situation.”
Similarly to Doub, Ferebee is excited about the contributions the food drive will make to the community, and with food benefits being halted across the United States, the meaning of the event to him has been amplified.
“Regardless of your political background or religious background or whatever, I do think it is important for everyone to take care of their community members, regardless of how you think that should happen,” Ferebee said.
He also discloses how important it is for public institutions to fill the gap created by financial hardship.
“I have always said I’d love to be wealthy, not because I want to be ‘wealthy,’ but because I can do things like this,” Ferebee said. “When schools and places like that have money that is expendable for these types of things, everyone benefits.”
This isn’t the first time Student Council has hosted a large community-building event. This previous October, the club’s Trunk-Or-Treat had a massive turnout of over 1500 families. What makes Gobble Goodies distinct, however, is its dedication to the hunger-fighting cause. Whether it is a few canned goods or a couple of dollars, there is still impact in even a single donation.
“We want to make sure everyone in our community has the ability to eat food and have healthy nutrition in their lives,” Ferebee said.
Student Council’s Gobble Goodies show that, for this group, giving back to one’s community is far sweeter than a bag of candy. Still, the sugary treats are a nice bonus.
