October 4 – November 12 2021 was Central’s JROTC annual food drive at Central. This is the 22nd year of the Central food drive, even with Covid-19 making it a little bit more difficult than the previous years. What the food drive consists of is students bringing canned and/or non perishable food items in to school and putting them in crates located in the cafeteria. The food will then be donated to local communities in need. Major Spencer, a JROTC instructor at Central, states the benefits of the food drive to Central as a school:

“As a school, the food donated helps out the local community as a whole, and builds a relationship with our school, Central High, and the Chattanooga Area Food Bank, where the food is donated,” stated Major Spencer, a JROTC instructor at Central, about the benefits of the food drive to Central as a school.

As well as the instructors, the cadets also play a big role in collecting food for the food drive. Junior Mckayla Hadland, expresses the importance of the food drive:

“Food drives further raise awareness about how many people are unable to afford basic necessities like food.”

The food drive has been off to a slow start due to lack of participation from students and lack of promotion. The staff at Central took this into consideration and came up with a plan to get students more involved with the food drive. On November 16 2021, a competition will be held between the Wednesday advisory classes.

“Bring non perishable, unexpired food items, either boxed or canned to your classroom…The Wednesday Advisory class with the highest number of items will be rewarded on Wednesday the 17th with pizzas for lunch…Each student that donates 5 items or more will be eligible for a jeans day on Friday the 19th of November,” Stated Michael Dupre, an instructor for the Central JROTC.

With a new method for collecting food items in hopes of getting more participation from students, Central is bound to help the community out even more. To all students, make sure to strive to get donations in, as it is for a good cause not only for the community in need, but for the student body.

November 17, it was announced that Nathan Dawson’s advisory class won the competition between classrooms after collecting 530 items in one day.

JROTC continues to make a difference in the community by sponsoring an Angel Tree project at Central through the Salvation Army.