Newton County School System (NCSS) students and staff collected 24,714 cans of food to support Newton County’s local food pantries. According to NCSS social worker, George Hutchinson, the school district’s annual Can-A-Thon is extremely important to the local Newton County community.

“This is one of the largest, if not the largest food drives in Newton County and our local food pantries have come to depend on us for this food drive to restock their pantries for the upcoming holiday season and winter season,” Hutchinson said. “Our support goes a long way for these food pantries to provide for their needs.”

According to Hutchinson, the collected food items were earmarked for three local food pantries this year: Newton Community Food Pantry, The Salvation Army Food Pantry, and Giving Hands Food Pantry at Covington First United Methodist Church.

“This year, our food pantries coordinated the pickup of the donated items, and they came through with flying colors,” Hutchinson said. “That’s no easy task when you have almost 25,000 food items spread out at various schools throughout Newton County.”

During the Can-A-Thon, NCSS schools competed in a friendly competition to see who can collect the most food items, and this year, Mansfield Elementary School earned bragging rights by collecting 5,334 cans. The Newton County Board of Education Central Office employees collected 3,673 items and Oak Hill Elementary School collected 2,570 cans. West Newton Elementary School supported the endeavor too, collecting 1,642 canned food items. Not to be outdone, Fairview Elementary, Live Oak Elementary, Middle Ridge Elementary, Rocky Plains Elementary, and the Newton County STEAM Academy each collected well over 1,000 items, too. This year, Piedmont Newton Hospital joined forces with Newton County School System, and they collected 1,200 items! It’s important to note that all food items collected in the NCSS Can-A-Thon remain in Newton County to support local families.

“I am so proud of our students and staff for their continued support of the Newton County School System Can-A-Thon,” Hutchinson said. “They show time and time again that they are ready and willing to step up to the plate to help those in need in our Newton County community. I’d also like to thank Piedmont Newton Hospital for joining forces with us on this year’s Can-a-Thon. Their help truly made this a community-wide event, and we look forward to working with them on this and other projects in the future. This was one of our best Can-a-thons ever, so I can’t wait to see what we accomplish next year.”