National Honor Society Fundraising to Bring Food-Packing Event to Eureka High

The National Honor Society (NHS) chapter at Eureka High wants to do its part to help those battling food insecurity and get the entire Eureka and Wildwood communities involved in the effort.

To do that, the school’s NHS juniors and seniors are embarking on an unprecedented fundraising effort for their chapter, hoping to raise $10,000 to bring a Rise Against Hunger food-packing event to Eureka High.

“We’re not doing this strictly as an NHS volunteer event. It’s a community event where we want to get people who are a part of NHS involved but also community members,” said senior Luke Deutschman, president of the school’s NHS chapter. “I hope that if it’s their first time volunteering, it will influence them to start finding opportunities and giving back. It will be like a seed planted.”

Rise Against Hunger is a nonprofit that aims to help underserved people worldwide achieve food security and resilience through nutrition, education and economic empowerment, fueled by a global movement of volunteers and partners.

One of the organization’s initiatives is bringing meal-packing events to communities, in which groups work together to assemble start-to-finish meals that combine rice, soy, dehydrated vegetables and a packet of 18 vitamins and minerals into life-changing meal packages.

According to the organization, Rise Against Hunger volunteers packaged more than 54 million meals in 2024. Deutschman and his fellow NHS officers are hoping to raise the needed funds to bring Rise Against Hunger to Eureka for a packing event this spring or fall.

“They bring all the supplies and everything, and they said they’d bring a gong to ring every time we pack a certain amount of food,” said senior Savanna Wylie, NHS vice president. “It’s a big celebration.”

Eureka High NHS is hosting fundraisers to contribute to the Rise Against Hunger event, but its main fundraising avenue is a personalized page for supporters to make direct donations. If you are interested in donating to the cause, please visit this link, then click “Eureka High School” and “NHS Rise Against Hunger” in the menus on the right to donate. You can also scan the QR code below.

Junior Libby Moss, Eureka NHS’ parliamentarian, said one of her favorite parts about being in the organization is connecting with the community through service opportunities.

“I like getting the opportunity to help our community,” Moss said. “NHS sets you up well to find different opportunities and a wide spread of opportunities.”

Deutschman was also part of the Student Council canned food drive that brought in 35,000 donated items this past fall. He hopes for the Rise Against Hunger event to be a continuation and expansion of this important work.

“Food insecurity has always been a problem,” he said. “I hope that it gives an opportunity for us to contribute to helping put food on people’s tables.”