The Second Harvest fundraiser is back to focusing on donating canned food, but those donating can also still use the online donation system that was used last year.

Students will be able to bring in canned foods to benefit the cause, and Second Harvest Food Bank will then distribute the donated food from their warehouse to surrounding counties.

“I think Second Harvest kind of saw the results of [donating online] and realized that it needed to be more of a blended version because we’re still doing the online giving as well, but they’re bringing the cans back,” assistant principal Mrs. Rachel Harmon said.

After last year’s fundraiser, Second Harvest noticed that the amount of donations was not as great as previous years due to students only being able to donate money online. Donating online was much easier for parents, but the physical act of bringing cans in to donate is much more influential and easier for students.

“The kids see their progress and with the cans they can tell they’re making a difference better than just clicking a button online,” said junior Taylor Patton, a member of SGA’s Second Harvest committee. “So I think the more that they can see their progress the more that they’ll actually want to donate and help Second Harvest.”

The cans will be set up in the West Mall so that students can monitor their progress and see how much food is being brought in.

SGA’s Second Harvest committee is hoping to encourage students to bring in more food and to donate more online by creating competitions between the grade levels.

One competition in specific will be the parking lot competition between the seniors and the juniors; this is where they compare how much the seniors brought in to how much the juniors brought in. If the juniors have more donations, everyone with a junior lot parking pass can park in the senior lot and all seniors have to park in the junior lot.

“We still have the link to the online donations as well for parents, alumni, or other community members that would like to donate but don’t come into the school,” said senior Cate O’Donnell, who is serving as Second Harvest chair for SGA.

Second Harvest hopes that having a combined system of both bringing in food and online donating of money will result in more overall donations.

To reach the overall goal, all East Tennessee schools involved in the competition should donate $92,000 worth of food total. Bearden’s contribution goal is about $15,000.