Members of Seckman and Windsor high schools’ student councils will travel the full length of the March for Hunger route again this year.
The students will meet at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, March 27, at the Mastodon State Historic Site, 1050 Charles J. Becker Drive, in Imperial. They will march along Seckman Road toward the Seckman campus, collecting donated nonperishable food items from bins set up at the entrances of subdivisions.
The bins for subdivision residents to donate will be set up at entrances by Monday, March 24, said Seckman sophomore Brody Kube, 16, who is the Student Council chair of outreach. Donations may be made until 10 a.m. Thursday, March 27.
Last year, students marched from Valley View Baptist Church, 2010 Seckman Road, to the Seckman campus because of construction near the Mastodon State Historic Site.
The march in 2024 lasted 45 minutes from the church to the campus, organizers said. They said traditionally the march takes about an hour.
“It is going to be nice marching the full length” said Kube. “It will be a better experience than starting at the church because it will last longer.”
After arriving on the Seckman campus, the students will then collect donated items from the middle and elementary schools before loading the food onto the bus to transport it to Sister Christine’s Food Pantry at the St. Joseph Catholic Parish, 6020 Old Antonia Road, in Imperial.
Before Windsor Student Council members gather at the Mastodon State Historic Site, they will collect donations from the Windsor C-1 School District’s schools.
“I’m excited for it because it is always fun to be with everyone, and we are doing it all for a good cause,” said Windsor senior Tyson Wallace, 18, who is the Student Council treasurer. “It is a little sad to know it will be my last one.”
Seckman and Windsor students donated food items at their schools before the march, and both high schools provided incentives for donations.
Kube said at the start of March, Seckman High students donated food in a teacher’s name. He said the three teachers who have the most donations made in their name will get a pie in the face during the school’s spring sports assembly in April.
“Hopefully, we will get a bunch of food,” he said.
Wallace said there are two collection benchmarks at Windsor High School. He said if 2,500 food items are donated, a teacher will be taped to a door during the school’s lunch period, and if 5,000 items are donated, assistant principal Jason Scheper will allow students to bedazzle his head.
“I think it will be hard,” Wallace said of reaching the collection goals. “The high school has lacked in collecting compared to the rest of the buildings in our school district. I do think if we get the word out enough and really emphasize it, I think we can do it.”
Deputies from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office will accompany students on the march along Seckman Road.
“It is important to have the Sheriff’s Office support us with our march down Seckman Road,” Kube said.
Last year, organizers said the March for Hunger collected enough donations to fill a school bus and a SWAT van. Kube and Wallace both said they believed that total may be surpassed this year.
“I think we can go higher,” Wallace said. “We have reached out to businesses for donations of money to go out and purchase more food. We also have asked them to put out boxes for people to donate at their businesses. We also are getting the word out to parents more, so they can send kids to school with food.”