DAVENPORT, Iowa — The Riverbend Food Bank kicked off its 36th annual Student Hunger Drive Monday night with a skit competition.
15 area schools showed off their one-minute-long act, and each one was judged on how well it conveyed the purpose behind the drive.
The food bank's director of communications, Liz Dierolf, said she hoped students raised enough to fill their depleted shelves in time for the holidays.
"We know, right now, the (River Bend) Food Bank and food banks across our communities are experiencing decreased donations of food and dollars from inflation, to supply chain issues, to manufacturers and distributors kind of pivoting what they sell in their stores to have less to donate. If you don't see it on the shelves, they don't have it to give to the food banks. So we're really hoping that the students can help us raise as much food as possible as we go into the holiday season."
Pleasant Valley Senior Allison Gause said her school has a big end goal.
"PV's goal this year is 100,000 pounds, so we're setting it high, but I think we can achieve it this year," said Gause.
The school that won the skit contest received a 2,000-pound food donation from Hy-Vee to jump-start their earnings. The contest resulted in a tie between Pleasant Valley and Rivermont, but Rivermont ended up taking home the prize in the tiebreaker.
Each school has six weeks to collect food donations.