Concord High School is collecting money donations for the Capital Region Food Program through Wednesday, Dec. 22: right up until the beginning of the winter holiday vacation.

To donate, students can donate any day of the week in classrooms; teachers forward collected money to organizers right here on campus.

Teachers, students and families who prefer an online donation can give via GoFundMe. 

All proceeds go directly into buying food for those in need this holiday season. 

CHS students and staff have partnered with Capital Region Food Program for over 20 years to help alleviate food insecurity in the Concord area.

Teachers and classes used to collect canned foods to donate, but the Capital Region Food Program is not accepting food donations this year due to the continued spread of COVID-19.

Cash donations are actually preferred because food program organizers can buy food in bulk, automatically increasing donations.

The annual food fundraising drive is a big event at CHS, as it gets teachers and students involved in an important community building event.

CHS teacher Kristina Peare, a member of the Capital Region Food Program board of trustees, said the biggest challenge is spreading the word.

“The hardest element of this is trying to get people to talk about it in classes, try to get people to come up with interesting ways to challenge each other, create fun ways of creating engagement in their classes.” Peare said.

No donation is too small.

“Everything adds up,” she said. “So you’re finding $1.27 on the bottom of your couch cushions and somebody else finding, you know, two bucks that they forgot in a pair of jeans. Those sorts of things add up really fast when you’re talking about the number of people who are in this building.” 

 Peare and teachers Rebecca Tancrede and Tammy Hatcher, along with  other people in the math department, are coordinating student helpers. 

According to a Capital Region Food Program spreadsheet, 1319 local families received holiday food baskets in 2020.

Towns served include Concord/Pennacook, Allenstown, Boscawen, Webster, Bow, Canterbury, Loudon, Chichester, Contoocook/Hopkinton, Dunbarton, Epsom, Pembroke, Pittsfield and Warner.