This week Chesterton High School is hosting the annual Westchester Neighbor Food Pantry’s food Drive! It’s up and running all of this week and mid-next week, from December 2-11, 2024. Make sure to do all that you possibly can to help out with the drive which focuses on helping the members of our community stay healthy and food-secure all year long. The Westchester Neighbor Food Pantry is asking for members of the community to help in various ways. They hope for the community to provide non-perishable foods, such as canned fruits and vegetables or boxed foods. They are also accepting any toiletries or cash donations that the community is able to provide. Items can be brought to the main office of CHS. 

Chesterton High School’s English teacher, Jennifer Jendrzejczyk has organized the food drive for multiple years now. She and a handful of students, often including sports teams, work together to sort and transfer the collected items to the food pantry for distribution. In past years, her drives have been extremely successful. In recent years for each food drive Jendrzejczyk states the school has given, “a box truck load full and…between 1500 and 2000 dollars in cash in addition to the box truck load full of food.” This amount of help from the community benefits those in need immensely and often helps those who may be close to donors. 

“Westchester Neighbor Food Pantry delivers food just to the people, our neighbors, in our surrounding community. So we know that this stays in our neighborhood. So when we donate we’re donating to people likely that we know unfortunately who need help. So this is a really great program where we have the opportunity to help people locally,” expressed Jendrzejczyk.

She emphasized the point that the donated items are only shared within the immediate area. So, food insecurity affects neighbors, friends, and family who you may have not even known were struggling. 

Some ways you can help are extremely easy. Strack and Van Til’s grocery has added an additional way for students and members of the community to give back with ease. By turning in a Strack and Van Til receipt to the box located in the main office of Chesterton High School, they are willing to donate needed items to the food pantry. 

Help out your community this holiday season and give what you can to the Westchester Food Drive.