Stedman Elementary School students helped collect 1,400 canned food items to donate to the food bank at the Salvation Army through their reading efforts in February. Each 30 minutes students read earned them one can to contribute to the Read to Feed drive.

Gregg Kowalski, head of the student council at Stedman, said the school has an annual tradition of doing a fundraiser, and since the last two year's projects had an international focus, the wanted to do something closer to home this year.

"In the past we've done one for Heifer International and we raised about $10,000 for them...Last yea...