Westwood's annual Kids Who Care holiday food drive took a sharp turn this year when classes turned collecting cans into lively learning.
      Their goal? To provide a project that connects academic learning with student service to benefit the community. So instead of just bringing contributions to a donation station, they kept them in their classrooms and sorted them by item, by shape of container, and by color of food.

      "We also estimated and predicted. Sondra Niland's kindergarten class, for example, took turns guessing how many cans it'd take to touch the ceiling. The answer? 25!" Counselor Barbara Gruener said.
      They also weighed and sorted the goods. Deanna Ellisor's class created several graphs, including a pie graph to show their donations by food group.
      Westwood set goals and collaborated. Stacey Markley's class challenged their book buddies to see who could bring in more.
      And, they wrote thank you notes to the pantries who will work on their behalf to distribute the collected food to friends in need. At week's end, each class brought their goods to the cafeteria stage, where students spent time on Monday morning sorting and organizing their own little food pantry.
      The sum total of their efforts? A steep learning curve for students and overflowing pantry shelves for the community.