Key Club is one of many service clubs at the high school, most notable for their work in organizing the popular Polar Bear Plunge which raises money for Special Olympics Maryland, Falconthon which raises money for Johns Hopkins Children’s Hospital and the Children’s Miracle Network and in the fall season, Harvest for the Hungry.
Harvest for the Hungry is a countywide initiative that tasks students across Anne Arundel County to raise money and food donations for the Anne Arundel County Food Bank. The organization aims to combat food insecurity, a large problem within the county affecting one in three kids.
“I wish people would recognize food and security, especially in Anne Arundel County, as the issue that it is, and that Harvest for the Hungry is actively trying to combat that since 66,000 people are suffering from food security in Anne Arundel County,” sophomore and Key Club Vice President Paige Willaims said. “One in ten families are suffering from it. It’s a massive issue. That Harvest for the Hungry directly connects with and directly tries to combat. So, it’s just, I wish people would realize the gravity of it and the gravity of the work that we’re doing.”
Since Harvest for the Hungry at Severna Park High School is run by a club at the school, the preparations for the event are made by both the students involved in Key Club and the advisors Elizabeth Meadows and Kristen Ritz. The county initiative has been running for close to 40 years and each year it runs, all schools in the county participate. Key Club, however, took over 12 years ago.
With such a large undertaking, preparations for Harvest for the Hungry begin about a month before it starts at the high school. This involves creating the general calendar for Harvest for the Hungry, contacting restaurants for partnership via restaurant nights, setting incentives for the 1A bracket competitions, and this year, collecting business donations. The work for the event does not end with preparations, however.
“I’m leading Harvest for the Hungry, so I try to count all the money that we get, and I also go and get donations from others and also raise awareness about it and just help with organizing it,” sophomore and Harvest for the Hungry committee leader Anosha Ahmed said.
All of the hard work comes with great reward as all donations received at the high school go directly to the Anne Arundel County food bank to help those one in ten families who struggle with food insecurity. Now, fall in Severna Park has become synonymous with community service as every year students, and their families rally to raise money and donate food items. The most amount of money raised from Harvest for the Hungry at the school in recent years came from COVID years where $20,000 was raised. Since then, the school has averaged a range of $15,000 to $18,000 every year that is given to the food bank.
“It can literally benefit people right here in Severna Park,” Meadows said. “I think a lot of times we think that everybody is wealthy in Severna Park, and that’s not always true, and it’s not even necessarily about wealth. Sometimes circumstances just happen and your family isn’t able to provide and knowing that we have the food bank in our community, there’s food banks all up and down Anne Arundel County that we are contributing towards. And you just never know, maybe even an extra neighbor that is food insecure because of any kind of circumstances, you could be helping. A lot of these things are kept really hush hush and community like ours. So, I think that’s important.”
