The annual Harriton NHS Thanksgiving Food Drive ended this past week with a bang, as NHS Members delivered all of the food to the Montgomery County Office of Children and Youth This year, NHS put on the most successful food drive in Harriton history, providing 100 families in Montgomery County a bountiful Thanksgiving dinner.

Since the beginning of November, the National Honor Society has been challenging Harriton’s advisories to collect as many canned goods as possible in order to reach an ambitious goal set by the chapter NHS, to help 100 families (“Harriton Helps 100”).  Providing canned and non-perishable goods for 100 families is no simple task, but the NHS reached its goal, and beyond. Each advisory at Harriton was assigned a family, provided with boxes, and asked to, “Fill the boxes with everything that would make a Thanksgiving dinner complete!”  In addition, cash donations and proceeds from the NHS bake table efforts allowed the NHS to purchase $20 gift cards for each family to buy a turkey, or other grocery items that might be needed.

While the students at Harriton played a major role in providing all of the necessary food items, there were also several generous from stores in the local area. Harriton NHS would like to thank Wegmans, Whole Foods Market, Acme, and Giant for their support over the last couple of weeks in generously providing hundreds of food items each. “The support we received from school was amazing, better than we ever expected, but the four stores that helped us played a monumental role in reaching our goal,” said NHS President Victoria Marks. “We were shocked at how much food was donated. All of the students and staff at Harriton should be very proud of themselves.”

Last Friday, a truck loaded with over 350 boxes of canned goods was delivered to the Montgomery County Office of Children and Youth in Norristown.  Upon arrival at the agency, the NHS officers and 30 NHS members were welcomed by Michele Kristofco, Community Relations Specialist/Personnel Administrator at Montgomery County Children & Youth, as well as staff and case workers. Ms. Kristofco expressed the organization’s overwhelming appreciation of Harriton’s support for the second consecutive year.  The NHS members were assured that their efforts went beyond all expectations and that they could not begin to adequately express their gratitude.

Thanks to the excessively generous donations from both the Harriton and local communities, 100 families in Montgomery County will be able to thoroughly enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday. Everyone should be extremely proud of their efforts- Harriton Helped a Hundred!