Paly’s Youth Community Service club (YCS) hopes to raise 5,000 pounds of food through its annual canned food drive which began Nov. 13 and will end Jan. 11.

The food collected during the drive will be donated to the Second Harvest Food Bank’s Holiday Food & Fund Drive. The Food Bank, a non-profit organization, serves the Counties of Santa Clara and San Mateo in hopes of ending local hunger. It collects and distributes more than 30 million pounds of food each year and serves an average of 162,000 individuals each month according to the Second Harvest Food Bank website.

Paly is one of the 1,800 organizations to participate in the yearly Holiday Food & Fund Drive. Non-perishable goods including ramen and macaroni are acceptable to donate to the drive, but huge bags of rice and flour are discouraged because of their lack of nutrition. Food in glass containers and perishable goods will also not be accepted.

To provide incentive for student participation at Paly, the food drive also doubles as a competition between fourth period classes. The class that raises the most food by weight will win a pizza and ice cream party.

“The canned food drive is a great way to contribute to the community, and the competition between the fourth period classes is a lot of fun,” YCS co-president Elena Cohen said.

InFocus, Paly’s broadcast journalism class, has made announcements about the food drive and posters have been put up around school to raise awareness about the drive. In previous years, InFocus has been a large contender in this contest and often challenged other classes to beat them.

“In the past InFocus has done segments and we hope to get them involved again,” Cohen said. “We really appreciate how they make it fun and get the competition going.”

Steve Foug’s fourth period is another class to watch out for. Every year that his class has participated, it has placed in the top three and in 2002, 2003 and 2004 won first place. Foug did not have a fourth period class last year, but says that this year, his class is already getting into competitive gear.

“I like to make it competitive,” Foug said. “It gets other classes going when I’m a jerk about it: it riles them up and gets them to donate more.”

Margo Wixsom, YCS club’s teacher advisor, applauds InFocus‘s prior involvement in the drive as well as Foug’s.

“This drive’s success is so dependent on how much teachers encourage their students to participate, and I really appreciate Foug’s efforts to increase donations,” Wixsom said.

When Wixsom was a teacher as well as a student with a daughter, she used food stamps. Now as a donor, she makes a conscious effort to choose food that she herself would eat regardless of its weight.

“The competition is fun but the point of the food drive is to help community members in need,” Wixsom said. “Having been someone in need, I am happy to donate whatever they need.”

Every Monday after school, YCS holds a collection day to gauge the progress of each class. Results from Monday Dec. 3 reveal the current standings at: Foug in first place, P.E. classes in second, and Paugh in third.