Cole Barbeau, Sophomore
Seniors Sadie Jennings and Alex Carter started MHS to Table with one goal in mind: to give back to those in need in the community. I sat down with co-president Sadie Jennings and advisor Mr. Michael Lavender.
MHS to Table is a club that was founded by Sadie and fellow Senior Alex Carter, who serves as co-president alongside Sadie. The two wanted to start a community service club centered around giving back to the local community. “We just felt like there weren’t a ton of service clubs at the school that really involved giving back to the local shelters, and we wanted to do something that involved food because we know that in some areas around us there are a lot of people who need the basic necessities,” said Jennings, when asked why they wanted to start the club.
Hoping to stay local, MHS to Table does a lot of events with My Brother’s Table in Lynn and is trying to work more with LifeBridge in Salem and the Marblehead Food Bank as well. The club worked with all three organizations last year, and it is hoping to continue working with them this year.
Currently, club members are collecting food to make lunch and dinner bags for those in need. They recently put up posters around the school with more information on the collection, and they are hoping to start making the bags soon.
Sadie and Alex are also trying to plan more fundraisers this year to support the club, as a lot of funds came out of their own pockets last year. One goal is to work with My Brother’s Table at Thanksgiving and assist in making the food.
In talking to Sadie, I noticed that she and Alex seem very passionate about the club, using their own homes to make lunch and dinner bags, and using their own money to support the club. Mr. Lavender had high praise for the two, saying that they approached him about being the adviser last year, promising the club would be mostly student-led and student-run, and “that’s exactly what they’ve done,” he says. All he’s had to do is serve as a collection area or get on Google Classroom to remind people of meetings and donations, but otherwise it is “a hundred percent run by these two and the other students.”
It’s safe to say that MHS to Table is serving its purpose of giving back to the community and helping the less fortunate.