The National Honors Society bases itself on four pillars: Scholarship, Service, Leadership, and Character. It is a club for students to bring positive change to the world through acts of service such as helping the food pantry or tutoring. The NHS does its very best to do as much good as possible and give back not only to their community but to the world as much as they can. Thus, they have begun organizing a food packing event with a company named Rise Against Hunger to help bring food to people worldwide. Yet, between the food, packaging, shipping, and help from the company in general, it can be very pricey and costs a lot of money that the NHS doesn’t have on hand. That is why they are holding many fundraisers to help raise money to bring food to those in need.
“It’s student driven and all of the donations that we make and all the money that we raise is going solely to the purpose of the food packing event and it’s for nothing else. So yeah, I’m very excited for these events and I hope they yield our monetary goal for this event,“ President of NHS Luke Deutschman, 12, said
The Fundraising Committee consists of the NHS executives, Andrew Taylor, 12, Haley Meek 12, and Emily Eldrige, 12, all of which meet occasionally to discuss fundraising strategies for the Rise against Hunger event. While there are many hoops they have to jump through including, organizing events, finding cost effective ways to put on events, and for the executives, juggling their other responsibilities for NHS, they are very determined to put on the Food Packing Event.
“We had this cool idea of reaching out to the press to help donate some funds and make monetary donations so that we can host this drive. We’re banking on the fact that St. Louis is the giving community it’s proven itself to be, and we hope that we can get some money from that,” Deutschman said.
There will be a trivia night that will consist of prizes, childcare, and fun. While it’s not set in stone, the date should be Mar. 27, 2026 and they are hoping it can bring in a large chunk of the money they need for food packing. In addition, while the date is not picked, there will also be a Culvers night during the month of January that will contribute to the Food Packing Event.
Though, NHS is more than just Food Packing Events and event coordination. They help with various local activities and have already had many accomplishments in the first semester of this year. They played a big role in the set up, management and take down of Downtown Eureka’s Octoberfest. They tutored countless struggling students, brought holiday joy to children at the children’s hospital, gave animals a toy to play with, and so much more. Yet, even with their countless accomplishments, they still are striving to make a larger impact with their food packing event.
“It’s important because NHS always goes elsewhere for volunteer opportunities, especially for this because this volunteer event we need the community to come to us, help us and show that Eureka itself is a very given community, as it has in the past. We want to help as many people as possible and bring food to those in need,” Deutschman said.
While it may seem small compared to the millions that experience hunger, every package counts. A donation doesn’t just help Rise Against Hunger or the NHS, it helps a real person. It’s dinner on someone’s plate and a nutritious meal for a child. Donate to help the National Honors Society of Eureka make a difference in the world.
“I want to help give back to communities bigger than [Eureka]. I want to help extend NHS’s reach beyond just St. Louis area, especially in the times of this food insecurity that we have in the United States and in the world,” Deutschman said. “I think that it’s really important that we help give back to the people who really need food, because I mean, I can speak for my own self and for most at Eureka that our pantries are luckily stocked in their own homes, and some people just don’t have that luxury, so I want to help give back for them and do my part.”
