From L to R: LAHS Juniors Angus Smith, Aditya Viswanathan, Seb Koglin and William Nettleton drop off non-perishable items collected during the food drive. Photo by Hari Viswanathan

By ADITYA VISWANATHAN

This November, our AP Government classes at Los Alamos High School got to turn what we were learning into real action. The recent government shutdown highlighted the role of federal programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and how critical it is for families in New Mexico. It quickly became clear how vulnerable households can be if benefits are delayed or stretched thin, especially around the holidays.

After talking with our teacher, Jon Frost about SNAP and local food insecurity, our AP Government classes, we decided to organize a holiday food drive. With my fellow students Seb Koglin and Angus Smith helping lead the way, we decided to support the county’s I Can Help program. Partnering with the National Honor Society, our classes set out to collect non-perishable items to help local households supplement their SNAP benefits. By the end of the drive, we had gathered a significant amount of canned goods, pasta, peanut butter, and other staples that will go directly to households in need.

SNAP plays a major role in fighting food insecurity in New Mexico. The state consistently has one of the highest SNAP participation rates in the country, with roughly one in five residents receiving benefits in a typical month. These benefits help families buy groceries, but they don’t always last through the entire month or cover everything a household needs. Food prices, transportation challenges, and gaps between benefit cycles can leave families short, especially during the holidays. Community programs like I Can Help are designed to fill those gaps, which makes local support from schools and students especially important.

For us, the project showed how something we read about in the news like a government shutdown connects directly to real people in our own community. What started as research for a class topic turned into a way for us to strengthen the safety net right here in Los Alamos. We saw that civic engagement doesn’t have to be a massive nationwide effort; sometimes it begins with a few students, an idea, and some boxes in a classroom, doing what we can to support our neighbors during the holidays.