All Schools Are Invited To Join The “Sack Hunger” Campaign

The MSHSL is once again partnering with Second Harvest Heartland to fight hunger in Minnesota, and all Minnesota high schools are invited to be part of the Sack Hunger program. Between now and the Prep Bowl championship football games over Thanksgiving weekend, we encourage each school to be part of the effort to fight hunger in this time of need. 

The project is very simple: Schools will accept donations of non-perishable food at their schools and in their communities, which will be distributed to those in need by Second Harvest Heartland, partner organizations and local food shelves around the state.

Like games on the field, the Sack Hunger campaign will be a competition to see which schools contribute the most food to those in need. With donations measured by weight, the top schools will be publicly recognized, with the school(s) that donate the most food being recognized as Champion Hunger Fighters. We will ask for final numbers from participating schools the week after Thanksgiving.

In 2018, the first year of the Sack Hunger campaign, Spring Grove High School was the winner. Owatonna was the champion in 2019 (the campaign was not held in 2020 due to Covid-19).

A few points to remember…

--Joining in this effort is voluntary and not mandatory, but we hope you will take advantage of this opportunity to provide lessons for your students about compassion, working together, thinking beyond themselves, and doing good things for others.

--You are welcome to make this a student-led program in your schools, with student groups (NHS, FFA, Student Council, etc.) taking charge of getting the message out, accepting food donations, devising a method for weighing the food donations (a physics class challenge?), and ensuring that the donations are delivered to or picked up by the food shelf closest to your school. In fact, it’s possible to turn over this entire project to students, including those looking for a service project.

--Schools are welcome to have friendly competitions within their communities, with grade levels, school buildings or civic groups vying to see who can donate the most food.

--Once all food donations have been collected by your school, pickup or delivery can be arranged by going to http://www.hungersolutions.org/find-help/#map . Reach out to one of the organizations listed to arrange delivery or pickup.

The MSHSL contact for this program is John Millea. He will promote it via his Twitter account (@MSHSLjohn), the MSHSL Facebook page, the MSHSL1 Instagram account and other platforms. Please contact John with any questions. His email address is [email protected]

In September 2020, one in nine Minnesotans, including one in six Minnesota kids, didn’t know where their next meal would come from. The Covid-19 pandemic increased hunger in our communities, from rates of one in 11 in 2018. 

Good luck in collecting food donations for those in need.