Second annual Martha’s Kitchen Food Fight pits SHS vs. local schools

The flyer for the second annual Martha’s Kitchen Food Fight.

Saratoga High is one of seven schools competing to donate food and help raise awareness to fight food insecurity.

The school is again participating in the second annual Martha’s Kitchen Food Fight, a friendly competition among six private schools and SHS which aims to raise awareness for and help alleviate food insecurity.

The event — run by Martha’s Kitchen, a soup kitchen in San Jose that provides almost 250,000 meals a month — is taking place from March 25 to April 30. Last year, the school placed second.

This year, the school will be competing against Valley Christian, Notre Dame, Bellarmine, Presentation, Saratoga, Saint Francis and Harker. Participating students can earn points for their respective schools by volunteering with Martha’s Kitchen (8 points per hour), donating cans of food (4 points per pound) and creating and donating snack packs (1 point each). The bin for food donations is located at the entrance of the school next to the Thermond Drama Center.

Other ways to earn points include creating social media posts (1 point each) and making financial donations (1 point per dollar). The Prathima and Nagaraj Murthy Family Charitable Trust will monetary donations up to $10,000.

While one of the opportunities available to students last year was a sandwich packaging event run by the Leo Club, this event will no longer be offered this year due to food safety reasons. Instead, assistant principal Kristen Cunningham encourages students to create snack bags, whether it is in clubs or even in friend groups, and drop them off at Martha’s Kitchen.

In addition, she hopes more students will register for volunteer sessions with Martha’s Kitchen. She emphasized the importance of increasing overall student participation.

“While leadership students, ASB, and staff are doing their part to get involved, we absolutely need every student on campus to do their part in order to get first place,” Cunningham said. “This is one of two times our community specifically comes together to give back … it’s a great way to be aware of those who are food insecure.”