Collaborating alongside the North Harris County Food Bank, Theater Ensemble is collecting and striving to donate food to help out fellow Houstonians.

One of the main organizers for the food drive is senior Riley Griffin. Griffin is an executive officer on the Theater Ensemble Executive Board. Griffin is a main organizer for the food drive this year.

Griffin is confident that enough food will be donated, as time has gone on, the amount of food donated has gradually increased.

“My freshman year I know it was a lot smaller than it was last year,” Griffin said. “Each year has been increasing, so I don’t necessarily have a goal, besides enough food that we’re like ‘wow that’s a lot.’”

Now onto the specifics of what should be brought and what is preferred to get donated for this year’s food drive.

The key items that need to be donated are non-perishables. Griffin says that “Usually we do see an influx in like corns and beans and stuff like that and then like ramen of course because it is cheap.”

From that, Ramen noodles are the most commonly donated overall.

“We get so much Ramen, every year, like so much Ramen,” freshman Mentor Makenna Cook said.

In conclusion to the items brought, Griffin advises that “preferably not to [donate] ramen, because that’s pretty unhealthy. Just canned foods and stuff like that.”  But any nonperishable items will be accepted.

The Theater Ensemble has two different methods of getting donations for the food drive.

“We have a certain neighborhood route around the (West Creek Valley) neighborhood and we dropped off bags at every door at that certain area,” Cook said. 

Donations are also received from students from our school. Then they are divided and distributed by grade level in the theater hallway that leads to the auditorium in storage bins.  

“We just have it divided by grade level, so it’s like 9th grade year, 10th, 11th, 12th,” Griffin said.