While to some of us, hunger is that droning stretch from 7:00 to lunch at 11:00, but for some, hunger means waking up and coming home to an empty pantry for days. In Colorado, one in every nine people is going hungry in silence. In schools, one in seven children are struggling too. That means if Doherty High School was representative of all the state, about 275 of us wouldn’t know where our next meal was coming from. And that’s where Harvest of Love comes in, by helping to feed that girl you sit next to in English or your friend’s friend who always says hello in the halls. 

Harvest of Love is a challenge through Care and Share across high school that aims to raise money and donations of food for families going hungry in Southern Colorado. Doherty holds a 3rd period classroom competition each year to inspire students to be proactive and shovel in donations. Select days in November are chosen for specific foods Care and Share needs most, and extra points are given out to classrooms for bringing in certain foods on the delegated days.  The full list of food days is displayed below. Teachers and students alike get very competitive and fervorous in raising money and food in hopes of being awarded first place and the trophy at the Winter Assembly. 

Student Council also hosts events to raise money for Harvest like Rent-A-Spartan, Lip Sync Battle, the annual Staff versus Student Basketball Game, and a Pasta Dinner.

Rent-A-Spartan and Lip Sync Battle both happen on November 13th at 7:00. Tickets are $3 for students and $5 for adults. Students are nominated in each grade level for Rent-A-Spartan and, as the title implies, you can bid to buy your friend out of class for a day and have them follow you around. Lip Sync showcases some of the clubs here at Doherty, including DECA, Link Crew, and Environmental Club.  The clubs participating compete in performing a choreographed lip-sync routine.

The Pasta Dinner takes place on November 20th at 6:00. Tickets can be purchased from Student Council members. Individual tickets are $10, couples tickets are $15, and tickets for a family of four with kids under 14 are $20.

Another pivotal event for Harvest is the annual Staff versus Student Basketball Game. Students signed up to play early in October, and names were drawn from a hat of players. Teachers from around the school were nominated including Mr. Kalawe and Mr. Prater.

Council also puts on lunch fundraisers like Jail, Ice Pants, and Pie In the Face. Students can pay to put their friend in jail for lunch, dump ice in a friend’s pants, or pay to see a pie thrown in a teacher’s face. 

Senior Abbey Mansfield went to the Staff versus Student Basketball Game last year. “I would say a lot of people went, but the game was fun and they had a lot of events like paying to get people pie-d in the face and [someone] got his mullet shaved off. I think that Student Council was really into it and watching them going around and trying so hard to get money made it really fun, and it was funny to watch,” Says Abbey. 

Harvest of Love started here at Doherty in 1996 in the social studies department. Mr. Vigil, retired Doherty teacher and principal, is noted as the leader who got the challenge going. Care and Share then joined in on the challenge, incorporating other high schools in Southern Colorado. Two years later in 1998, the torch was passed from the social studies department onto Student Council. The first year council logged their earnings, we raised 181,103 pounds of food alone and all the food we collected fit into the back of a U-Haul truck. Today Doherty has full semis that we fill with donated food.  

Shannon Brice, Chief Alliance Officer at Care and Share and Doherty High School Alumni, found her love for Harvest here. On her experience here, Brice says, “My experience with HOL (Harvest of Love) dates back to my sophomore year at Doherty. That was my first year involved with student council, and I walked into an already existing culture that had been built for years of giving back through Harvest of Love.” Brice has been working at Care and Share for the past 12 years. “Harvest of Love is the reason I work at Care and Share. Being apart of Harvest of Love taught me the power of one can of food making a difference in someone’s life and each year at Doherty that love of being apart of something bigger than myself grew. When a job became available I jumped at it; and it’s become my career,” says Brice.

Harvest of Love has grown exponentially since its inception. Over the years, we’ve collected a total of $600,693,28.54. Last year, we collected 5,037,114 pounds of food total between money and donations. Brice says “[Harvest has] grown to be a movement within the Doherty community; it’s just “what Doherty does”. It seems almost effortless; but I know it’s anything but. It takes hard work and dedication to pull of that sort of effort.” Doherty has won Harvest of Love the past few years in a row, and some of our traditions are being used to raise more money in other schools. “Doherty is the shining example of Harvest of Love and I’ve proudly (with permission of course) shared what I learned at Doherty as a student with all the schools that’ll listen… but what Doherty has is special and so far, no one can come close to the magic that Sparta creates each year” Brice explains. 

Harvest of Love has become Care and Shares largest fundraiser, partnering with over 90 schools across the Pikes Peak region to raise funds. The food collected from Harvest feeds families around Southern Colorado through the holidays and the beginning of the new year. Care and Share usually buys large quantities of food or gets them donated, but the food is usually all of one kind. Harvest supplies Care and Share with a variety of necessary foods to redistribute out. 

Brice, with words of encouragement, says “That can of food that you pull from our own food pantry; or that box of cereal that you ask your parents to buy at the grocery store- it matters. That can or box is going to be opened by someone who doesn’t have consistent access to food. Or that coffee that you forego, or $5 that you pitch in will be turned into 40 meals.That’s right: $1 can provide 8 meals (or 10 pounds) of food. Think about that. Can you spare $1? Sure you can. Search under those couch cushions and find a few nickels, because the people you are helping are so grateful. I’ve had the distinct fortune to spend more time out in the field, learning about the neighbors who are receiving the fruits of your labor, and they’re so thankful. They’re kids, just like you, at schools just down the street, whose parents are working hard but just not making enough to make ends meet. The good thing is you get to be a part of the solution- by making a simple gift of spare change or a jar of peanut butter.”