During a two-week period beginning on Oct. 28, Sakai Middle School’s 580 students collected about 8,000 non-perishable food items for Helpline House’s Project Wishbone.

Organized by their teachers, the students collected food from their families’ pantries, people grocery shopping and by going door-to-door on the island.

“It’s amazing,” math teacher Matt Pedersen said. “It was part of their routine and we made it competitive and the kids really responded. We also made it part of our math curriculum by creating graphs and charts.”

Tons of canned and packaged food collected by Ordway and Sakai students were delivered this week.