This year’s School Community Food Drive, an annual challenge to see which school can collect the most canned and non-perishable food items for GMFB, was one for the record books. Held October 17-28, 2022, this year’s challenge had fifteen participating schools from Gainesville City, Dawson, Lumpkin, and Hall County School Districts, as well as independent schools in the area. Those schools raised a total of 33,164 lbs. of food, the most ever raised in a School Community Food Drive Challenge since we began this competition at GMFB, despite a lower number of schools participating. In first place among participating schools was Riverside Military Academy, whose students collected a total of 10,150 lbs, the most any school has ever raised in the history of this challenge. 2nd place went to Spout Springs School of Enrichment (4,828 lbs. collected), and 3rd place went to Chestnut Mountain Creative School of Inquiry (4,207 lbs. collected). Kay Blackstock, executive director of GMFB and volunteer coordinator Denise Bernardi, recently presented the winning bowl “trophy” to Riverside Prep students. To see the complete list of participating schools in this year’s challenge, click here.

To learn more about the efforts of the winning school, Riverside Prep, read their article here.