DECA’s annual participation in Trick or Treat So Others Can Eat yielded a considerable amount of non-perishable food items for community members in need this year.

Members of DECA, in addition to other student volunteers, split up into groups to cover different neighborhoods throughout town for the event. Volunteers asked residents for non-perishable food items they might like to donate to those in need during the holiday season.

Food items donated by residents were collected and sorted at the Community Assistance Center in Hays by DECA members as well as the CAC’s own volunteers.

Prior to the event, fliers offering information about the food drive were handed out to 39 local businesses by CAC volunteers. Some 500 food items were donated before the actual food drive commenced.

Anything non-perishable, from canned goods to ramen noodles, was accepted.

The event came just in time, as Laurie Mortinger, co-director of the CAC, said shelves at the center were running “really bare” prior to the mass influx of canned goods and other items brought in by the student volunteers.

Out of the items donated, a week’s worth of food will be distributed by the CAC to low-income families in Ellis County six times a year.

The holidays seem to be the prime time for this food drive, since people tend to be in the giving spirit and supplies at the CAC often run scarce this time of year.

“We get a lot during this season because Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming up,” senior DECA member Maddie Keller said.

Although the one-night mass collection has concluded, it is not too late to donate extra canned goods or other such food items.

Non-perishable food items as well as monetary donations will continue to be accepted by the Community Assistance Center until Oct. 31.

18lgregory@usd489.com