KW students bring in mighty haul of food donations

Christine Donaldson’s third-period physics class may have been named champions of the first Kentwood High School “Munch Madness” food drive tournament, but the real winners are the Maple Valley and Kent Food Banks.

Urged on by a little friendly competition, the student body at Kentwood collected a total of 28,832 pounds of food during the month-long competition, shattering last year’s total of 8,600 pounds and nearly tripling this year’s original goal of 10,000 pounds.

“You guys have outdone yourself one more time,” leadership class teacher Kurt Phelps told the students as the winning class whooped and high-fived following the final weigh-in. “It’s amazing what a little competition will do.”

This year’s food drive was organized by the leadership class and led by Student Body President Kevin Massimino, who said the idea for a tournament-style contest was generated while at leadership camp this past summer.

Massimino, himself a big sports fan, said he figured pitting 64 third-period classes against each other on a giant set of brackets in the school commons would help the ASB reach its goal of 10,000 pounds of food, an ambitious increase over last year’s total.

But even Massimino, 17, was not prepared for the sheer quantity of food that was collected.

“I’m absolutely blown away,” he said after the totals were announced. “To raise 29,000 pounds of food in a month is beyond my biggest expectations.

“That’s more than 1,000 pounds a day,” he said.

The students have been competing for the past month, with regular weigh-ins to determine which class would move to the next round. The two finalists were Donaldson’s class and Karl Cortes’ class, with Donaldson coming out on top, 2,307 pounds to 1,814 pounds.

The rules were simple: gather non-perishable food. Because it was a weight-based competition, only six cases of water and six cases of rice were allowed from each class.

The winning class received a free lunch, care of the Golden Steer Restaurant, and Christine Donaldson immediately invited Cortes’ class to join them. The students, however, were not competing for the prize, since there was no prize until the day before the final weigh-in.

The students were competing for bragging rights and simply to bring in food for the needy.

After the victory was announced, winning class member Karsten Wise said his class would not only collect food, but also pass around a beaker to gather spare change from students.

Wise said he spent a total of 25 hours over more than four days sitting out in front of the QFC on 240th Street asking people to donate to the cause.

Spurred on by classmate Alexander Lee’s rallying cry “It’s go time!”, Wise said he was proud that his class did not donate any water or rice.

“We won by donating all nourishing foods,” he said. “Everybody’s donated. Its been a collective thing.”

Other members of the student body leadership said they were proud of their schoolmates and what they had accomplished.

“The food drive showed how committed we are to service,” said secretary Tim Pham, 18. “When we do anything, we go all out.

“That’s Kentwood,” he said.

Principal Doug Hostetter agreed.

“When you set our students on a task or give them a goal, you know they’re going to meet it if not exceed it,” he said. “When we see a bracket, we want to win.”

“We have a pretty competitive school,” echoed Phelps. “They saw the brackets and were like, ‘It’s on!’”

Phelps said the amount given shows the character of the student body at Kentwood.

“I think it’s a testament to our kids, especially at this time (of the year),” he said.

“I’m really proud of the Kentwood student body,” Massimino said. “We’ll have to beat it next year.”

The ASB said their goal is to leave a legacy to future classes and staring at some of the 25 palettes of food they collected, the students said that the Munch Madness bracket system appeared here to stay.

“This is a new tradition we are starting,” said ASB Vice President Kelsey Bradfield, 17.