Over the weekend, some students from Duluth East came together to host a food drive and collect donations for CHUM. The Community Outreach and Restoration Association (CORA) went door to door in the lakeside/Congdon area of Duluth, asking residents for cash, checks, or canned food items donations.

The student-led volunteer group brings together middle and high school students to help non-profit organizations in the community. Starting from a middle school student. He was in eighth grade at the time and wanted to help nonprofits organizations that were struggling after the pandemic.

Over the last 3 years, the association has supported CHUM, Second Harvest, and Animal Allies to name a few non-profit organizations. Each year they consistently host a food drive at Bentleyville, The Air Show, and this Spring Food Drive. A group leader of CORA, Gaven Greshowak, shared about their past successes.

“We’ve raised I think over 7,000 for nonprofits. We do the air show every year and that brings in like $1,500. And then we’ve raised over 1,000 pounds of food for chum and second harvest.”

The students span seven grades across Duluth East but are working to connect with other schools across the Northland. From their own pockets, they keep recruiting more members and making CORA a nationwide program. Where other schools can open up branches that can become volunteer organizations within other schools too.

The Spring Food Drive was on Saturday and Sunday from 12 pm – 4 pm. Over 7 hours, the students of CORA, collected 360 pounds of food and $559.35 in donations for CHUM.

With the success of the Spring Food Drive, the students set their eyes on summer and the Air Show. But this year, they are also planning on reaching out to adopt a highway. Their Branch Director, Oscar Thompson, spoke on their current plans.

“So, we’re going to contact them in regards to adopting a portion of some highway, hopefully near Duluth, so we can actually get out to it. And twice a year we’ll go out and clean that up.”