Children at Union Baptist Academy participated in a food drive to collect non-perishable items to donate to the food pantry at Parkview Baptist Church in Picayune.

Christie Tatum, director at the Union Baptist Academy said this was the Academy’s second year to hold a food drive as a celebration of the year’s 100th day of school.

“The goal was to collect 100 cans of food items for donation to the food pantry at the Parkview Baptist Church,” Tatum said.

She said this year the Academy collected over 2,000 non-perishable food items that included soup, boxed items such as mac and cheese and ramen noodles.

This year, students at the Academy surpassed the 800 items collected last year.

“We started collections in the second week of January and collected for four weeks before we handed over the donations to the Parkview Church on Feb. 2,” Tatum said.

Phil Pearson, pastor at Parkview Baptist said the food will be enough to provide several months of food for those in need near Picayune Park, a community around the church.

Pearson said he was amazed at the amount of food the children at the Academy were able to collect.

“It feels good to see the great lengths children at the (Academy) went to and that shows how much they care about feeding those that are hungry,” he said.

Tatum said since the drive is held near Super Bowl, the class that collects the highest number of food items is treated to a tailgate lunch party.

“At the party we treat children to chicken nuggets, nachos and games for their effort,” she said.

Pearson said Union Baptist Academy and Parkview Baptist Church share a wonderful partnership that helps people in the community.

“I see us doing this again as the children are very excited to help those in need around our community,” Tatum said.