The Natrona County School District announced in a press release that students from Manor Height Elementary donated over 2,500 pounds to the Wyoming Food For Thought Project and the Unaccompanied Student Initiative.

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The Food Bag Program, which is part of the Wyoming Food for Thought Program, is a year-round program that provides kids with meals for days they are out of school since 2013, and this year Manor Heights students donated granola bars, cracker packs, and fruit cups.

Last year, Manor Heights students raised $15,000 for Special Olympics Wyoming Jackalope Jump event.

Nathan Vondra, Manor Heights Physical Education teacher who was involved with the Jackalope Jump and several food drives in the past, said in the release:

"Giving back to the community is a great way to spread awareness while at the same time bringing our school closer together. A teacher's job is to make students feel safe and to give them the skills they need to be successful, contributing adults. Our students are learning so many important life skills when participating in events like these; they might not even be aware of it until they are out of school and making a difference in their community. Manor Heights students really come together to help others, it is such a heartwarming feeling, and I couldn’t be more proud of the families we have here."

Jamie Purcell executive director and co-founder of the Wyoming Food for Thought Project, said they've done food drives with Manor Heights and other schools in the district in the past and they appreciate the partnership they have with the NCSD.

Purcell said the food they got from this drive is already going out to people in the community and that there are several benefits to kids donating food.

"When a kid gives a can of food, they have a tangible item that they know is going to feed someone, so they become invested in what we're doing," Purcell said." The other way is that when we have food drives, we get a lot more diverse food than we would just buying it in bulk. So it's neat to see the different things that come in and to be able to pay it forward to kids in need in our community and diversify their diet...we give out food every single week, we're serving about 150 kids every weekend with our weekend food bags, so that food has already started to go out to kids. As food comes in from food drives, it doesn't sit very long. Comes in, we weigh it, we sort it, and then we get it out to kids."

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