During Friday’s rally, senior class president Mingwei Samuel announced the winners of the annual food drive for the Alameda County Community Food Bank (ACCFB), with English teacher Rosie Reid’s 4th period class taking first place, English teacher Jody Weverka’s class in second and art teacher Gillian Bailey’s class in third.

“We are one of the biggest food drives in Alameda County for [the ACCFB],” ASB advisor Mercedes Foster said. “We are second only in some years to Safeway.”

For every dollar the food bank receives, it can purchase $6 worth of food. Since the student body collectively raised $8,763.58, the ACCFB will be able to purchase $52,581.48 worth of food, Foster said.

For this reason, ASB emphasized monetary donations. However, after the first two days of collecting cash, ASB learned that they were not allowed to collect this way. In response, Samuel, who organized the drive, worked with the ACCFB to create an online link for donors to choose a teacher as they donated. Under this system, donations from friends or relatives counted towards the total of whichever class they picked.

Foster said that the students and staff were enthusiastic, with almost 27,000 points earned.

“I think everybody was in it for the right reasons, and that was just really nice to see,” Foster said.