J.H. Moore Elementary officials and students are hoping to reach out to the community by filling homes with food.

The school is hosting its second annual food drive to collect canned food items for impoverished residents in the area.

Jerri Bates, a fourth grade teacher and student council sponsor at J.H. Moore, said officials are hoping to donate cans to the Marshall Food Pantry. Last year, the school collected cans to donate to poor students at the school.

The campaign began Monday and will end Nov. 20 — just before the campus shuts down for the Thanksgiving holidays. On that Friday, the school will deliver all the cans that are collected to the food pantry.

Ms. Bates said the school is hoping to collect at least 360 cans. There are about 27 teachers and 307 students who are participating in the drive.

The campaign is being conducted by the student council.

"We have challenged every student in the school to bring at least one canned food," said Ms. Bates. "That's our goal."

Ms. Bates said she's hopeful the school may even surpass its goal.

"We hope that actually we exceed the target because a lot of kids will bring in five or six cans," she said. "We're hoping that we'll even double it."

Ms. Bates said the donated items must be non-perishable.

"It can be bags of rice, bags of macaroni or macaroni and cheese in a box or it can be ramen noodles, green beans or canned fruit," she said. "It doesn't have to be just Thanksgiving food. It can be any type of food."

School officials are looking for volunteers or anyone interested in donating. The school is located on 2303 Norwood St.

"We're just trying to teach the children to help each other and that no matter how bad you think your situation is, there's always somebody that's a little bit worse off than you are," Ms. Bates said. "It's teaching the children that it's OK to give. If everybody comes together and helps each other, it's going to make our world a better place."

For more information on the food drive, contact 903-927-8760.