On April 27, 2023, Hillcrest High School Key club, along with other Key Club members from different schools in District 228, participated in April Food’s Day: an event that collects and distributes food to people who are in need. This took place at the Tinley Park Convention Center.

To begin, after eating breakfast, all the volunteers there were given a specific task, so that the work could be split up, and we could work simultaneously at the same time.

There were groups of receivers, checkers, sorters, and packers. The receivers would stand outside and receive the truck loads of boxes and bags of donations from all over the world and bring them inside the building. They would then go to the checkers. Their job was to check the expiration dates on everything and if it was no good then it would get tossed away.

The items that were good would then be handed over to the sorters where they would sort items according to their assigned label. There were tables labeled pasta, soup, toiletries, fruit, etc.

Last but not least, the packers would take the sorted food and separate the food as evenly as possible into boxes, with each having some of everything. After these boxes were full they were set aside for later so that they could be distributed and given to those who need it.

But there was more to this event than just work, we also had a chance to meet and be filmed by staff of CBS news station for all the work we were doing.

In addition, we listened to music, received t-shirts, got a chance to meet people from 92.3 radio station, and some people won raffle tickets.

Overall, this event was to address food insecurity in the South-Southwest suburbs. This region is home to one of the fastest growing areas where the population of people living are at or below the poverty line. So us going out there to help, even for a few hours, may seem minimal, but it is really helpful to the people that the food is getting donated to, but also to us students as we earn community service hours and get more involved in our community.

I am proud to be a member of our Hillcrest Key Club and able to give back to my community when given the chance. I hope Hillcrest continues to do amazing things in the future and help give back to their community.

I would definitely recommend joining this club to all of the incoming freshmen, sophomores and juniors.

The Hillcrest Key Club participated in April Food Day at the Tinley Park Convention Center to sort the food for several local pantries and churches. #hillcresthawkpride pic.twitter.com/tf3XuoeCGi

— Hillcrest High School (@HCHawkEye) April 27, 2023