Yanis Mehenni joined the Oakton Pantry at Oakton HS two years ago. The Pantry is available to help Oakton High School students and their families, as well as members of the larger Oakton community, who are in need. The Pantry offers non-perishable food, personal hygiene items, household cleaning products, and school supplies.

Each Tuesday, Yanis coordinates volunteer packing of the supplies, organizing students and coordinating with parent volunteers. The donations are sorted into 30 to 40 bags each week. The parent volunteers then collect and oversee the distribution of the bags.

Yanis said, “Honestly, I first joined the Pantry as a freshman because I just wanted some service hours. But as I spent more time participating, I started to ask myself, ‘What if my family couldn't safely provide food? Would there be people willing to sacrifice their time and money on me?’ Knowing that I was that person for families in need shifted my mentality from getting hours to making an impact.”

The work is supported by fundraisers from various student groups at Oakton HS. Between 15 and 25 students sort the food into bags each Tuesday for the families to pick up on Thursday.

Yanis thinks that many of the students who volunteer do it, not for the service hours, but from a sense of doing what’s right. “I believe that, given enough time at the Pantry—or any form of volunteering—anybody would come to a very similar conclusion,” he said. And Yanis thinks that this point of view will ensure that the students will continue serving their communities long after they graduate from high school.

The student volunteers come from all grades at the school. This means that the project won’t end when some of the students graduate. Further, Yanis notes that it provides a good source of interaction between students of different grade levels.

“Over the time I’ve volunteered here, thanks to our kind-hearted sponsors and the effort put in by our volunteers, the Pantry has grown in size and efficiency. We can now help more people meet their needs, and as much as I don't want more families to be in that situation, we’re ready to help in whatever way we can,” Yanis said. “Looking ahead, with our increasing supply and our dedicated volunteers, I see nothing but more growth after I graduate. I hope that we’ll be able to expand the scope of the Pantry to focus on more people and provide more goods to each person, particularly non-food items, like hygiene and school supplies.”