Students at Zachary Elementary School celebrated 100 days of school last week by collecting cans of food to donate to the Zachary Food Bank. The kids collected the goods beginning Monday, Jan. 23, through Friday, Jan. 27.

In the five-day period, the second- and third-grade students collected over 3,043 cans of food.

Each homeroom had a goal of 100 cans to collect and nearly all the classes reached their goal and beyond, said teacher Brandi McNabb.

Zachary Food Bank volunteers Roma Prejean and Reginald Dykes were on hand to collect the food on Friday.

"We need this food right now," said Prejean. "The holidays are usually plentiful, but its this time of year that the food usually stops coming in."

Prejean said the Food Pantry feeds about 575 people and over 200 families.

ZES students and teachers celebrated the 100th day of school on Thursday, Jan. 26. Graphs showing their daily collection results were posted in the cafeteria so that students could see how much each classroom was giving back.

"This activity gives the students an opportunity to have fun learning about graphing, to celebrate the 100th day of school and to learn to give back to their community," said teacher Heather Stone.

To give the classrooms an opportunity to reach 100 cans, the deadline for collecting will be extended until Wednesday, Feb. 1.

If you would like to donate to this project and help the kids reach their goal, please contact Heather Stone at heather.stone@zacharyschools.org.