On one of the hottest days of the month, six Helmsburg Elementary fourth-graders walked back and forth from a small bus filled with food to Mother’s Cupboard, unloading more than 4,000 items.

“I’ve never seen anything like this. It wrapped around the hallway,” Principal Kelli Bruner said.

“There was so much stuff. … Everyone, every kid, the parents were all awesome. Everybody was chipping in.”

In the end, around 4,400 food items — cans of soup, boxes of macaroni and cheese, cereal, dog food, canned vegetables and more — were collected during Helmsburg’s Food Drive Sept. 10-14.

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That’s an average of 22 donated food items per student in a school where last year, more than 61 percent of students were on the free or reduced lunch program according to Indiana Department of Education figures.

“We’re getting pretty stocked back up again, thank goodness. We were out of everything,” Mother’s Cupboard Executive Director Sherry Houze said.

Superintendent Laura Hammack had volunteered at Mother’s Cupboard and noticed the shelves were getting bare. She sent an email to principals asking if anyone would be willing to help.

“I emailed my fourth-grade teachers and said, ‘What do you guys think? Can we get a food drive together for next week?’ They were like, ‘Yes.’ They got a team of six kids,” Bruner said.

Those fourth-grade students were Azucena Gonzalez, Kendra Welcher, John Stowers, Della Hitchcock, Elayna Stanley and Angel Kochopolous.

The fourth-grade Food Drive Committee began planning activities for every day of the food drive to encourage students to participate.

“Each day it (the food) was kind of like money. If you brought this much, you’d get this. Each day there were different activities,” Stanley said.

For example, on Tuesday, Sept. 11, students who brought one donated item were able to participate in Crazy Hair Day. Students who brought five items were able to do Crazy Hair Day and wear pajamas to school. Students who brought in 10 items were able to bring in a small blanket, wear pajamas and have crazy hair.

On that day alone, 563 food items were donated.

Other rewards included chewing gum in class; wearing hats, backwards shirts, crazy socks or sports team jerseys; going barefoot in class; bringing a stuffed animal; getting extra computer time during reading or writing; dressing like a superhero or book character; and eating lunch outside with the principal.

Bruner said the rewards made all the difference.

“I think these kids came up with some really fun activities for every day to do and made it motivational,” she said.

“To chew gum — you would have thought the world was coming to end. … Lots of bubblegum chewers.”

Natalie Van Zuiden’s second-grade class collected the most cans. They will get a Slushee dance party in the gymnasium. The class of 15 kids collected 756 food items.

The second-place class collected 711 cans. That class will get 30 minutes extra for recess.

“I think it’s a good opportunity for people to bring it because families are going hungry and everybody needs to be fed,” Gonzalez said.

Kochopolous said she enjoyed counting the food and helping people in need.

“There was so much food. It was really hard to get it all here,” Welcher said. “… I felt like it was something for a good cause.”

Houze said it was one of the largest donations the food pantry has had in a long time.

“This looks like a food drive a town would do,” she said.

She said Mother’s Cupboard has seen about a 10 percent increase in hot meals in the last few months. The food pantry averages about 150 meals served per night. Clients who pick up hot meals also can shop for groceries on the pantry’s shelves.

Last month, the pantry served more than 4,000 hot meals. Even though this donation was large, it will go quickly, Houze said.

“Even though it will seem like we’re overloaded at the moment, it won’t take long and it will all be gone, because they are allowed to come in every day and shop, although we limit how much they can have at one time. But still, when you’re serving that many people in one evening, it doesn’t take long to go through stuff like that,” she said.

Houze said the increase in people coming in is partly due to the Shepherd of the Hills food pantry closing.

She said more people tend to visit this time of year because their money is going elsewhere after school starts, like to school supplies, clothes or book fees. “They are a little short, so they are coming here to help supplement,” she said.

The week before Helmsburg’s donation, Sprunica Elementary School also dropped off canned goods. Houze said she was expecting a donation delivery from Brown County Intermediate School this past Monday.

Social media also helps bring in more donations. Houze said she will post when the shelves start to get bare and people will start bringing in bags of groceries.

Volunteers spent the week sorting through the donations. Houze said some items would be put on the client shelves, others would be stored and the rest would be used to help make the hot meals.

“I think it’s wonderful,” Houze said of the donations.

“They have such a good time doing it. It makes them feel that they’re accomplishing something for the community as well.”

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Food donations can be dropped off at Mother’s Cupboard on Memorial Drive (the fairgrounds) in Nashville between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Like Mother’s Cupboard on Facebook by searching for “Mother’s Cupboard Community Kitchen Inc.” Updates on volunteer opportunities and any food needs for the pantry will also be posted there.

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