Students and families beat last year’s food drive record that was slightly over 5,000 cans by bringing in a record breaking 6,866 cans and nonperishable food items during the annual Thanksgiving Food Drive.

The items will be donated to the food bank at St. Francis de Sales Church in Abingdon and the Manna House Soup Kitchen in Bel Air. The drive, led by coordinator and school secretary Susan Strawbridge and assisted by the Romero Club, began on Nov. 1 and ended on Nov. 25.

On Nov. 22, the count was still low and Strawbridge said that people were asking if the school was going to collect enough cans to beat last year’s total. She believed they would. However, according to Strawbridge, “I didn’t know we were going to make it that big.”

“We are going to continue to set goals high. Hopefully students are realizing the need is out there. That is what it is all about: doing for others. It could be any one of us,” Strawbridge said.

The Romero Club also assisted Strawbridge with raising awareness and collecting the cans.

“I think it went really awesome because people exceeded our expectations,” Romero Club member and senior April Moscati said.

The top advisory was English Department Chair Christine Zurkowski’s, with 624 items. As a reward for winning, they will be allowed to take a field trip to Manna House during December. There, they will help serve at the soup kitchen.

According to Zurkowki, it is all “thanks to Kelly Stifler and her senior spirit.” She brought in about 510 cans on the last day of the drive.

Moscati, a member of Zurkowski’s advisory, said that she is “really excited to feed all the people [at Manna House] and help them. I love seeing people’s faces light up when I serve them.”

Second place was won by Fine Arts Department Chair Bruno Baran’s advisory, which donated 450 items. Social Studies Department Chair Jake Hollin’s advisory donated 403 items, and finished the top three.

Hope Kelly is the Editor in Chief for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.