For his senior project at Columbus North High School, Darren Riley, decided to help make a difference in his community by providing food for Thanksgiving meals to older community members in need.
Darren, son of Thrive Alliance In-Home Service Manager, Jillian Riley, worked with his advisor, Beth Hummell, Nutrition Program Manager at Thrive Alliance, to design a program for community members to donate food items at various locations in town (Columbus North High School, Coca-Cola Bottling Company and Thrive Alliance.) along with the option to make monetary donations.
Darren chose the theme “Score for those in their Golden Years” and created a “menu” of food items to be donated, divided into four “quarters.” Individuals could donate any one or more item from each of the four quarters. His goal was to raise enough food to provide meals for 100 individuals.
The campaign ran for three weeks prior to thanksgiving. When completed, the campaign had raised food donations valued at $3,480. Monetary donations totaled $480, used to purchase additional food items. All told, 116 meals were made possible.
