By Vanessa Hu
The Jack Emery Drive will be different this year due to the new virtual learning environment, Activities Director Jerell Maneja said in an email interview. The drive will have a new donation process to maintain the safety of the community, Maneja said.
The Jack Emery Drive is an annual canned food drive held by the Milpitas Unified School District (MUSD) that benefits the Milpitas Food Pantry, Maneja said. The pandemic has caused an increase in the demand for donations at the Milpitas Food Pantry, so it is important for the community to contribute any donations that they have to deal with the surplus in demand, Maneja added.
“In Milpitas, the Jack Emery Drive contributes more than 50% of the total donations for the Milpitas Food Pantry, creating enough canned goods to support families for the entire year,” Maneja said. “[The Milpitas Food Pantry] supports more than 3,500 low and fixed-income individuals within our community.”
The Jack Emery Drive will begin on Nov. 16 and continue until Dec. 18, ASB President Lladro Valle said via text message. There will be contactless drive-through collection spots at MHS every Wednesday from 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., Valle said.
“We will have weekly drive-through drop off zones for families to conveniently bring their [cans and cash] donations while maintaining social distancing protocols,” Maneja said. “For the MHS drive, the drop-off zones will be in the student parking lots at MHS.”
There will also be an online website that accepts monetary donations, which is the preferred method for cash donations, Maneja said. The Milpitas Food Pantry’s website will have an online donation link, and they will make other alterations to their website to align with the Jack Emery Drive, he added.
“We are also accepting online donations, so you can still support the drive without leaving your home,” Maneja said. “We will be providing information about how to make an online donation through an online video, and provide instructions so students can donate on behalf of their grade and MHS.”
In previous years, the school promoted Jack Emery as a first-period activity, where students contributed by donating to their first-period class and competed based on the total number of donations to their 1st-period class, Maneja said. However, this year’s drive will be more focused on grade-level competitions and on involving the MHS community, Maneja said.
“Because of the complexities of our online educational program and the unprecedented demand on instructors, the student organizers and I agreed that we may want to approach this drive in a different direction,” Maneja said. “Under the leadership of our new spirit commissioners, we have found more engagement in our class spirit point system, and we are hoping to continue that momentum. But ultimately, our focus is to work together as a school and community to donate to the [Milpitas Food Pantry].”
On Nov. 4, a virtual brunch was held to discuss the drive with all of the MUSD schools, Valle said. The purpose of the brunch was to inform all the schools about the changes in the donation procedures that will take place this year, he said.
“[During the virtual brunch,] representatives from the district [and] each MUSD school, the Board of Education, and [the] head of the Milpitas Food Pantry met together on Zoom,” Maneja said. “The goal of the kick-off meeting—usually a brunch in the MHS library—is to build energy around the drive, allow the site representatives to meet each other, and provide guidance and discussion about Jack Emery. As the district chairs for the Jack Emery Drive, ASB President Lladro Valle and Vice President Kelly Nguyen explained the history and significance of Jack Emery and shared ways that sites can still participate in the drive despite our current environment.”
MUSD decided to create this drive as a way to honor Jack Emery and his contributions to the community, Maneja added. Jack Emery used to support families in need in the San Jose community and his efforts can be seen across many local organizations and schools, Maneja said.
“I believe the Jack Emery Drive is vital because everyone deserves to have a comfortable and warm holiday season, no matter who you are,” Valle said. “We always have to help one another and this drive speaks volumes for the saying, ‘sharing is caring.’ The reasoning why I wanted to continue this influential Milpitas tradition can be simplified in a simple phrase: This symbolizes our unity. ASB wants to always bridge the gap from school to the community, and this directly goes to it.”