The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WAITSBURG - The Leos Club at Waitsburg High School is hoping you'll clean out your cup- boards, do an extra grocery run or write a check to help meet its goal of collecting 500 pounds of food on Thursday, Nov. 8.

Leos Club President Emma Philbrook said the club will split the community into four equal parts and each part will be assigned a class at the high school and the food drive will be turned into a class competition.

"The class with the most - wins," Philbrook said.

Each group of students will be paired up with a member of the Waitsburg Lions Club and a pickup truck. The four groups will be going door-to-door in Waitsburg from 5 to 7 p.m. asking for donations to the Waitsburg Resource Center.

The students would love to receive shelf-stable food, hygienic products, and items like toilet paper, all bagged and ready to go. If residents won't be at home during that time, they can leave a bag of items on the porch.

After all of the food and money is collected, the students will head to the Waitsburg Resource Center to weigh the food and see who won, Philbrook said. Then, they'll celebrate with a barbecue at the Lions Club Cook Shack after the weigh-in.

The students didn't run a big food drive like this one last year, so the students are really hoping to get to work.

The students are also running two in-school food drives. The first drive was a peanut butter and jelly drive and Philbrook said the students collected at least 100 jars.

The second drive, which ends at 3 p.m. on Nov. 8, is a general food drive for items like soup, stew, toilet paper, tuna, toothpaste, hygienic supplies and more peanut butter.

Philbrook encouraged all community members to donate food items and other high-need items like hygienic products.

She has personally taken a field trip to the Waitsburg Resource Center recently and she saw the empty shelves for herself.

"It was pretty sparse in there," Philbrook said. "I would just love to bring them a bunch of food and get those shelves full."

Pastor Bret Moser of the Waitsburg Presbyte- rian Church said he is very thankful that the students are running the food drives during a time when the need is great in the community.

"It's extremely helpful," Moser said. "The need is greater than it has been in the past."

Moser said in addition to food and high-need items, the Waitsburg Resource Center is also hoping to receive some monetary dona- tions. The center helps those in need put gas in their cars to get to medical appoint- ments and helps pay power, water, sewer and garbage bills. He said the fund that helps pay these bills hasn't been totally depleted, but it's getting close.

Finally, Moser wanted the community to know starting Nov. 4 recipient and donor applications for the Christmas Basket program will be available at local churches and the center for citizens to fill out.