CALABASAS : School Doubles Last Year’s Effort in Canned-Food Drive Challenge for the Hungry

A two-week holiday food drive at Calabasas High School netted nearly 7,300 cans of food for the hungry, more than double the amount collected by students last year, school officials said.

More than half the cans were collected as a result of a challenge between a senior government class and a group of sophomores in an honors European history course, said John Reich, a history teacher, who helped organize the drive.

The 50 seniors collected more than 2,500 food items to beat out the 47 sophomores, who gathered 1,800 cans, Reich said last week.

The competing students went door-to-door in their neighborhoods in search of donations and also sought discounts from local supermarkets for purchasing dented cans.

Reich said the food will be turned over to the L.I.F.E. organization (Love Is Feeding Everyone), a nonprofit food collection, distribution and education outreach program founded in 1983 by television stars Valerie Harper and Dennis Weaver.

Food collected by the 1,200 high school students will be added to the 4 million pounds collected from supermarkets, wholesalers and distributors this year by L.I.F.E. employees and volunteers, said Christopher Hartley, director of development for L.I.F.E.

Items collected are distributed to 125 social service agencies that feed the hungry throughout Los Angeles County, Hartley said.