LOWELL | Surrounded by boxes of food they had finished packing during their recess Thursday, members of the student council at Lake Prairie Elementary School were anxious to deliver their goodies to the West Creek Township Food Pantry.

"I'm surprised," 10-year-old Meagan Fitzgerald, a fourth-grader, said of the amount of donated food. "I wasn't in student council before. I didn't know we could raise so much food."

This year marks the council's second food drive.

Teacher Amanda Treasure, who co-sponsors the student council with teacher Jillian Rizo, said she was recently told the cupboard at the food pantry is nearly bare, so she is particularly happy the kids can help.

"It makes you feel good," said fifth-grader Paige Roadruck, 10, of helping others.

Travis Marlow, 10, said the kids and their families of Lake Prairie have been very generous. "I think we have more, maybe three times more, this year," he said.

To get that high level of participation, student council members talked up the food drive in visits to each classroom and in on-air ads they wrote that were part of the daily announcements. They also created posters to advertise the food drive.

Hailee Stover, a fifth-grader, 10, said the decision to sponsor the drive was easy.

"We did it last year, and we wanted to do it again," she said. The members made it competitive and the classroom donating the most will be awarded with a pajama day at school.

Treasure said she doesn't want such projects to be once-a-year efforts.

"We're going to look at what else we can do to benefit others in our community," she said.