Kenwood High School gives back to its students in need by providing food for the students’ families who are less fortunate. Kenwood currently has three different means of getting and distributing food to those in need in our community.

Kenwood’s own social worker Mrs. Reaves oversees our food pantry which is supplied by The Maryland Food Bank but is supplemented by some of the food from the Kenwood food drive conducted every holiday season by the National Honor Society (NHS). The cheerleaders also have a food drive under the direction of Ms. Littlejohn in which their collection also goes into the food pantry. The pantry is open to all students and families.

We have a partnership with The Baltimore Hunger Project in which they provide packaged food bags for 20 identified students. These bags contain food to help students get through the weekend.

The third partnership we have is with St. Michael’s Lutheran Church of Perry Hall. This church supplies us with 30 food boxes for Thanksgiving and another 30 for the winter holiday so in total, we provide 60 meals for identified families.

These families are identified through the counseling office and through a message that was sent out through Naviance. Kenwood’s math teacher Ms. McNulty oversees the National Honor Society (NHS) Food Drive throughout November and shares, “The food drive has been a tradition at Kenwood since I’ve been here for at least the past 11 years. We collect non-perishable items from Kenwood homerooms during the month of November to distribute to the needy during the holidays. We work with Ms. Reaves to keep some of the food here, but I also work with Empower4Life, a local non-profit, to donate some of the food to the homeless shelter as well. We have collected over 300 pounds of food from various Kenwood classrooms this year.” NHS President Shawaiz Abbasi and Vice President Caroline Harris oversaw the organization of distributing the food this year. Harris states, “I love how we can help provide food to those in need this holiday season.”

These various means of providing food to families “gives families food security and gives them one less thing they have to worry about; it also develops partnership with families and the school,” shared Mrs. Reaves.

Our Kenwood community hopes none have to go without meals this holiday season and our food pantry is always accepting donations to help those that may need a little help this holiday season.