Leechburg Area School District elementary students have once again done their part to make sure people don’t go hungry this holiday season.

The young learners collected more than 1,400 canned goods for the Leechburg Food Bank.

Food was collected in each homeroom at David Leech Elementary from Nov. 8-19.

Students sorted and packaged the items, which were delivered by the school’s maintenance department Tuesday.

The food bank is in First United Methodist Church in Leechburg.

The drive was coordinated in large part by the elementary student council.

“It felt good to help those people in need, and I felt like a leader by encouraging other people to help donate,” said Brooke Cuffia, fifth grade student council classroom representative.

Elementary guidance counselor Danielle Matus said the school has had a food drive for at least 16 years but had to miss last year because of the pandemic.

“It was awesome to have it back in place this school year,” Matus said. “The goal of the student council is to initiate and participate in service projects for our school and Leechburg community, with the motto of ‘doing good things for other people.’ Service projects of this nature have tied in well with our schoolwide theme of this school year — kindness.”

Students in grades K-5 participate in monthly guidance lessons that promote kindness, and they celebrated World Kindness Day in November.

The Rev. Gary Lyon, director of the food bank, said the students’ kindness with their food collection was overwhelming.

“Our shelves are full, and we have tons of reserve,” he said. “We can’t possibly count all the cans and dry goods we received. It weighed several hundred pounds and filled up the bed of the school’s pickup truck with box upon box. It took us approximately 15 minutes to unload it.

“This year’s donation surpassed the previous ones. Special thanks to the David Leech Elementary staff for making this happen, and a shout out to all the students for bringing in the donations. The (Leechburg) food bank board of directors, volunteers and especially our clients are most grateful.”

About half of Leechburg Food Bank’s food comes from the Armstrong County Food Bank.

Leechburg serves about 72 “units,” which includes individuals and families, monthly.

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