Johnston High School students complete successful SADD Food Drive

NUMBER ONE: That’s the title that Zachary Zambarao now owns by way of collecting a JHS high of 657 cans of non-perishable food items during this year’s SADD Food Drive.

Sun Rise photos by Pete Fontaine)

CLASSIC COLLECTION: Members of Johnston High school’s SADD (Students Against Dangerous Decisions) gather around the 4,000 plus cans of non-perishable food items they collected and later distributed to needy in town. (

Sun Rise photos by Pete Fontaine)

Johnston Sun Rise · Friday, November 25, 2016 1:07 pm

By Pete Fontaine

Zachary Zambarano probably won’t make the Guinness Book of World Records, but he’s now known as Johnston High School’s best canned goods collector. “He’s only a sophomore and he brought in 657 cans of non-perishable foods!” exclaimed Greg Russo, the JHS Student Council advisor who coordinated the school-wide food drive. The boxes filled the JHS lobby, and members of the Student Council later delivered them to Johnston schools to help people in need at Thanksgiving. Collectively, the JHS student body – Russo said with enthusiasm, “Our kids collected over 4,000 cans of non-perishable foods this year. We are all proud of each and every student that participated in this important food drive collection.”

The JHS Students Against Dangerous Decisions (SADD) organization coordinated the 2016 Food Drive. The student group held a competition between all homerooms, and Russo announced Vanessa Faiola’s room of sophomores took top honors with 208 cans. A Seniors Room staffed by teachers Erin Ferraro and Melissa Iafrate, collected 116 cans, and Gina Gove’s Seniors Room came in third with 106 cans. Faiola’s students received the top prize of a free breakfast.

“We are all proud of what our students did during this canned goods food drive,” Russo continued. “They all realize the importance of this mission. The fact they collected over 4,000 cans of food speaks volumes about the student body at Johnston High School.”

The members of SADD who orchestrated this year’s highly-successful food campaign were: Krisinee DelSanto, Vanida Singharath, Emily Watson, Tayla Lombardi, Jen Bruno, Anthony Cabral, Ryan Sandbach, Marina Chiello, Paige Grenkiewicz, Brad Testa, Dylan Lavoie, Sophia Rengigas, Kevin Ochoa, Kyle Nelson and Nina Carnevale.