DAVENPORT, Iowa — The 38th Annual Student Hunger Drive is officially underway. 16 Quad Cities-area school districts are competing to gather the most food for the River Bend Food Bank.
Eamon Matlock, and other students at Rivermont Collegiate, gave their all to their food bank-themed skit parodying "Hot To Go" by pop artist Chappell Roan. It's to kick off the River Bend Food Bank's biggest annual fundraiser.
For decades, students in the Quad Cities have competed to donate the most food to the food bank.
"Since its inception in 1986, the Student Hunger Drive has provided over 19 million meals to the community," River Bend Vice President Jenny Colvin said. "So we’re hoping this year to create a new milestone year, a new record-breaking year. We are challenging the students this year to raise one million meals. That will bring us to 20 million meals overall since its inception."
Last year, participating districts gathered a record 813,000 meals during the six-week competition.
All that starts with skits. Five teams of high schoolers performed skits to compete for 2,000 extra pounds of food, but only one could take home the prize.
"We’re a smaller school so we do our part, but everybody’s super supportive at our school so it helps out," Matlock said.
He said his team worked hard on their popstar parody. But after a tiebreaker, a different redhead came out on top. Moline High School's "Little Mermaid" riff was enough to win over the judges.
But all 16 school districts will spend the next two months working to feed those in need.
Students have until Nov. 6 to gather food and cash donations for River Bend. Colvin said middle and elementary students also participate in the food drive.
News 8 Sports' Kory Kuffler emceed the event, something he's done for more than 10 years.