“During the drive I’ve been gathering food from the teachers who have donation bins in their classrooms and then sorting the food,” Cotiga said. “I’ve been trying to advertise this drive to my friends, and post flyers around the school. Student council has really been trying to get a lot of donations in.”
Promotion of the food drive ranged from printed and painted posters taped around school, to social media posts and reposts. This year was the first year monetary donations were made possible, which provided those who didn’t want to bring in physical donations to still contribute to the cause. Garcia took the money donated online to the grocery store and bought canned food to add to the physical donations students and staff brought in.
“I figured some people would rather donate $10 for 10 cans than go to HEB or drag in a lot of heavy cans,” Garcia said. “That’s fine with me, I figured if we’re able to get support in ways other than physical donations then we might as well do it.”
The 2025 student council food drive ran from Nov. 3 – 21. Canned food, rice, and peanut butter were all accepted as donations. This year’s goal was to collect 2500 pounds of food, this number was more than doubled with a grand total of 5305 pounds of food donated to the Central Texas Food Bank.
“We set a school record this year,” student council co-president senior Reed Watts said. “We’ve never donated that much from our food drive before, I’ve been helping the food drive for three years now, and I’ve never seen anything like that.”
The Friday before Thanksgiving break, during eighth period, student council members loaded up their cars alongside Garcia with the final donations, and took them to the Central Texas Food Bank. Bowie’s food drive broke the record for the season at the food bank with the most amount of food donated from a program.
Alejandro Garcia carries bags of cans.
A total of 5,305 pounds of cans were
donated by students and staff, setting a
Bowie record. (Gus Abbott)
“The food drive is probably Bowie’s biggest event of the year when it comes down to helping the community,” Garcia said. “Anyone on campus can help with this one, even finding a single can for less than a dollar helps the cause.”
These donations will be used by the Central Texas Food Bank to provide meals for those in need and stock mobile food pantries. The location of these pantries can be found on their website under ‘find food now.’ In addition to food pantry locations, the website provides information on which food program(s) the pantry supports. Most pantries in the area have an open food distribution system, allowing anyone to walk in and receive food during operating hours.
“I feel like we’re making a difference in our community with this food drive,” Watts said. “It’s really satisfying to be a part of.”
The city of Austin website states that 18% of Travis county residents experience food insecurity, which is roughly 240,000 people. The website also offers links and information about other resources that can help Austinites gain access to healthy food.
“With the general nature of our government and food benefits right now there is a higher need than ever before for food banks,” Garcia said. “I really have emphasized that if people have an opportunity to give this year, please do so, a lot of people are in need.”
While food banks are able to provide many meals to those in need, they cannot cover all those in need of assistance. Feeding America states that for every meal a food bank provides, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) provides nine. During the recent government shutdown, the Trump administration announced they would not tap into the contingency funds that are in place to cover costs like continuing SNAP during a shutdown. This caused a high increase of anxiety in those who rely on SNAP, and there was an increase in food insecurity across the nation. Food banks saw an increase in participation after this announcement, reinforcing the need for donations.
“The food drive was supposed to make people feel good, which is the whole point of giving,” Garcia said. “You give to give, not for any kind of return, and it is the season of giving. If you have the opportunity to help, then you should have that drive within yourself to do so.”
