A group of high school students from Aubrey Rogers High School in northern Collier County spent their day off making a difference, packing meals at the Meals of Hope headquarters in North Naples.
The nonprofit supplies dehydrated food and encourages the community to assist in preparing meals for delivery across Collier County and the United States.
"We are a nonprofit focused on feeding communities in need, but the best part of Meals of Hope is that we like to get communities together to do it," said Julyvette Pacheco, the community outreach manager for the nonprofit.
The event was sponsored and organized by 17-year-old Darren Nieves, a junior at Aubrey Rogers, who created a community service club at his school in May 2024.
"I was sitting in one of my classes, and another student and I were talking about nonprofits and just about, like, the difference that we can make at our school, Aubrey Rogers. It makes you feel really good, and you know, it's going to a good cause. It's not just something that we're just doing. It has a lot of meaning to it," Nieves said.
The club, organized via social media, has hosted numerous food drives on campus and is one of the largest clubs at the new high school, boasting more than 100 members. At the most recent event, the Superintendent of Collier County Public Schools joined in on the service.
"Look at the leadership of these kids. Look at their capacity for compassion. These kids are showing up for other people, and the average person who doesn't get to be around high school kids or young kids today feels like it's a me generation. These students are all about others," said Dr. Leslie Ricciardelli, the superintendent of Collier County Public Schools.
"You get to feed an incredible amount of families. Over 4,000 families go to each one of their food pantries a week, and that's the biggest deciding factor. Christmas time is huge, and so is Thanksgiving. We plan to do food drives through our school. It's definitely not stopping here," Nieves said.
Regardless of whether you are a student at Aubrey Rogers High School, you can join the young man's work here.