Organizations in the district, such as National Honor Society and the Association of Plainfield Teachers, prepare a food drive and service projects to help those in need.

So far, NHS outlined several plans to serve the community.

The service-based organization plans to help at St. John Lutheran Church on multiple occasions. The group will assist the church’s food pantry in early November, and December, and they hope for a large turnout.

The church currently hosts a weekly food pantry as well as a mobile food pantry in association with the Northern Illinois Food Bank.

NHS also plans to host a group outing during winter break for the organization Feed My Starving Children, a popular location for students to get service hours. The service includes packing food to give for those in developing countries.

The organization will also continue past involvement with Cougar Needy Families by hosting a food drive.

NHS Vice President, senior Sarah Hajek, explains that the organization is looking to help during the holidays.

“It’s supposed to be [around] Thanksgiving for turkey and stuff,” Hajek said

Their collaboration is still in the works, but the club is looking forward to assisting their fellow Cougar families in need.

NHS President, Erik Radakovich, senior, outlines how Cougar Needy Families reaches the students.

“Cougar Needy Families is very focused on community,” Radakovich said, “It goes out to the most in need families, usually to parents who have students in the school, but it also goes out to all the surrounding areas like the subdivisions around here and to Plainfield South families.”

The group has other projects coming up later in the winter.

“There were discussions about a potential coat drive, toy drive,” Radakovich said, “We’d put up a Christmas tree in the media center like [last year’s sock drive] but you can take an ornament then, in turn, you would give some sort of donation whether it be money, gifts, toys, things like that.”

Teachers at South are also contributing to those in need.

Tara Smith, English teacher and South’s teacher’s union representative, is working with APT to collect food donations from teachers for Bags of Hope.

“This month [the donation recipient is] Bags of Hope, which is an organization within the district for families who can’t afford your basic food necessities and stuff like that,” Smith said, “There are people within each building who figure out who those kids are and who needs the help, then they work with those families quietly and individually.”

Other clubs are attempting to plan food drives as well as collect donations similar to APT’s drive.

“PSLC is looking to set something up,” Smith said, “Student Council actually did [set up a donation] back during homecoming week, the food that they collected at Class Olympics all went to Bags of Hope, so they ran the food drive for that. I think other groups have run different food drives throughout the year. So, it would probably be the different organizations that do the community service type of stuff.”