BY KAREN BOSSICK

The Wood River High School principal and three teachers received a pie in the eye, and The Hunger Coalition got a ton of food this past week, thanks to an enthusiastic effort by Wood River Middle School students.

The students collected 2,418 pounds of canned goods over a 20-day campaign ending Oct. 20 and they celebrated with a pie party, in which four students selected in a raffle were able to pie WRMS staff members.

The food drive, dubbed “The Hunger Games” was spearheaded by sixth-grade leadership students and teachers Melanie Bemis and Dan Gralenski. Each student in the school was challenged to contribute  three pounds of food. And each contributor was given a raffle ticket for each pound they donated, with winning raffle tickets dictating which students would be able to pie the principal and teachers.

Nine students in the WRMS sixth-grade leadership class created a booth for students to check in their canned food and they promoted the event, issuing reminder notes and posting a leaderboard in the school news twice a week.

The sixth-grade class contributed 922 pounds of food, followed by seventh graders with 773.5 pounds and eighth graders with 669 pounds.

At halftime of the final eighth-grade WRMS football game the winning students got to pie Principal Rob Ditch, and teachers Bemis, Gralenski and Kyle Carr, the WRMS Spanish teacher and football coach.

The leadership class will deliver the food to The Hunger Coalition on Nov. 4.

“I am so incredibly proud of our students for the effort they put forth to support their fellow community members during what is such a difficult time,” said Principal Ditch. “This is a school community that truly cares about one another and doing the right thing.”