The annual canned food drive was a major success once again. This year was special because every record set last year was surpassed, including the total number of items collected, money donated and total school points, senior Bilal Qureshi said.

The canned food drive is a competition between third period classes and an opportunity for students to give back to the Sunnyvale community. Everything donated is handed off to Sunnyvale Community Services.

“This year our canned food drive was super successful and I feel like we got a lot more teachers involved who did not have the canned food drive spirit,” Qureshi said.

The items are used to transform the organization’s regular warehouse into a seasonal Christmas center. At this Christmas center, families in the Sunnyvale community are able to shop for their own food and go home with a household gift, Alexander said.

During the two weeks of this event, 1000 families come through the warehouse for the holidays and are able to get the canned goods, personal care items and toys  students donated.

“Every person that comes through our Christmas center ends up with something donated from Homestead,” Sunnyvale Community Services Director of Operations Carolyn Alexander said.  

Local low income families, homeless, disabled and senior citizens receive donated items and food regularly from the canned food drive, Alexander said.

“There are certainly students at Homestead that use our services,” Alexander said.

Donations are heavily relied on for a huge portion of items around this time of the year.

“We get a lot of schools [to participate] but Homestead is off the charts as far as the quantity,” Alexander said, “all of our volunteers here are always asking me when we are getting the Homestead stuff.”