The Palo Alto High School Youth Community Service-Interact Club has announced the winners of its annual food drive after collecting over 700 food items over a period of two weeks.

The food drive was a competition between third period classes, where points were awarded based on the number of non-perishable food items that students brought to class.

The winners of the food drive, from first to third place, were the classes of Caitlyn Evan, Matt Hall and Kari Snell. First place received a pizza party, second place was awarded donuts and third place earned chocolate bars.

Senior YCS-Interact President Kate Musen said the food items, which included canned tomatoes, canned tomato sauce, canned beans, whole grain cereal, whole grain pasta and pancake mixes, will be given to the Palo Alto charity organization Neighbors Helping Neighbors.

“We were very excited by our results this year,” Musen said. “We don’t know the exact weight of the items this year … but from we see, we believe that this may have been one of our biggest and most successful drives yet.”

According to Musen, Neighbors Helping Neighbors is a program that provides groceries to people in need who otherwise do not qualify for welfare programs that give food.

“Neighbors Helping Neighbors provides food primarily to Palo Alto families, so we appreciate the opportunity to help those within our own community,” Musen said. “Living in the Palo Alto ‘bubble,’ there’s a tendency to forget that there are a lot of families in need within our own borders.”

In the past, the food drive has been hosted in the fall, but the club decided to space out their charity projects after having a clothing drive during Spirit Week.

Musen noted the importance of consistently providing assistance to those in need.

“A lot of other organizations host food drives during the holidays,” Musen said. “But low-income families need food year round.”

Emma Chiu contributed to this story