The Youth Community Service club is employing new incentives and advertisements this year to encourage student donations to Paly’s canned food drive.

The main objective of the food drive is for Paly students to contribute 10,000 pounds of non-perishable food items that will then be donated to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo, according to YCS club president senior Caterina Yuan. Last year, Paly students contributed over 8,000 pounds of canned goods to the food drive out of an initially established YCS club goal of 12,000 pounds, according to Yuan.

To help fulfill YCS club’s goal of raising 10,000 pounds of non-perishable goods, a new prize included in the food drive this year is a car wash for the teacher of the class that contributes the most amount of canned food by weight to the drive. The regular prizes of pizza and ice cream will also be rewarded to the winning class.

"The classes that have participated [in the drive] are those with enthusiastic teachers who encourage their classes to donate," Yuan said. "We hope that by giving teachers an incentive, they will then encourage their classes to donate to the food drive."

Also new to this year’s food drive are fliers posted around Paly’s campus, plastered with a picture of Paly football team members and the slogan "The football players agree…don’t be a canhead! Donate to the YCS canned food drive in your 4th period room."

"I thought it would be funny if we played with the stereotype of football player jocks but twisted it into an ad campaign," YCS club representative Ilene Rafii said. "The purpose of the poster was to catch peoples’ attention and remind them that the canned food drive is going on, because it tends to be overlooked and not taken seriously."

Rafii hopes that these fliers will act as an additional reminder to Paly students to donate canned goods to the food drive, since the majority of the advertising for the food drive usually comes from "just an occasional InFocus announcement," Rafii said.

Though the motivation and efforts to increase donations to the food drive are apparent, it is nevertheless important for students to bear in mind the true meaning of the food drive itself, according to Yuan.

"With a few cans, you can help a family or make a difference for someone," Yuan said. "Students should donate to help their community!"

While the canned food drive at Paly will end on Dec. 8, Yuan also stresses that donating to those less fortunate is always an ongoing process.

"People tend to donate food only during the holidays, not during the spring or the summer," Yuan said. "Unfortunately, hungry people are hungry all year round."