It was organized chaos at Lowes Foods Wednesday evening as students helped to kick off the Friends Feeding Friends food drive.

With a goal of raising 650,000 pounds of food in the state, local residents have their work cut out for them in helping Surry County do its part. However, the area got a head start on Wednesday as students from the Mount Airy City and Surry County school systems grabbed carts, filled them with food and headed to a check out lane where their fellow students checked out the goods and bagged them before they were loaded into the back of a truck to go to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest NC.

“I liked packing up the carts and waiting in the check out line,” said Louis Osorno, a third grader at J.J. Jones Intermediate School. “We’re giving to people who need food for Christmas.”

The students filled their baskets with items such as granola bars, instant mashed potatoes, canned goods and cereal. These items are non-perishable and can be considered staples by any family.

“We’ve been active members in all of our communities ever since Lowes Foods started. We started with this food drive in 1995. It’s an opportunity to pull together all of our stores and get the community involved. Everything stays right here in the community where it is collected,” said Barbara Saulpaugh, vice president of marketing and merchandising for Lowes Foods and a member of the board of directors for the Second Harvest Food Bank.

During the November and December food drive last year, Second Harvest collected enough food to feed 1,000 families of four three nutritious meals a day for just more than one month. However, according to Clyde Fitzgerald, executive director of Second Harvest, the need this year is even greater.

“The problem of hunger keeps getting greater and greater. Hunger does exist and there’s something we can do about it,” he said. “We appreciate all of your involvement tonight. You are our heroes and we appreciate it.”

The students had fun working the cash registers and bagging the groceries, but they were also aware that they were helping families in need throughout the county.

“We’re helping the hungry,” said Eli Stroup, third grader at Jones Intermediate. “It makes me feel pretty good.”

“We’re here to help people who don’t have food get food and have a better life. They have just about everything people need here,” said Shelby Taylor, a fifth grader at Flat Rock Elementary, who said she had the most fun scanning the items.

“It’s just fun to be able to help. If we didn’t, there would be a lot of people that would probably starve,” said Breanna Goins, a fifth grader at Flat Rock, who liked taking the bagged food out to the truck.

Many of the teachers spent time in class in the past days talking to the students about the upcoming food drive.

“I think they need to play an important role in what they need to do to make the community aware of these issues,” said Julie Hodges, a teacher at Cedar Ridge Elementary. “Doing this shows them that there are hungry people here.”

The students also had the chance to see that adults in the county are excited about what they are doing and support the cause. Mount Airy Mayor Jack Loftis attended the event along with Surry County Board of Commissioners Chair Craig Hunter and Vice Chair Paul Johnson. Dr. Ashley Hinson, superintendent, represented Surry County Schools, and Vickie Cameron, executive director of instruction, represented Mount Airy City Schools.

“We support this effort by Lowes Foods. Certainly the city of Mount Airy is 100 percent behind this effort,” said Loftis.

“Mount Airy City Schools is proud to be a part of this. Children are never too young to learn to give back to the community,” said Cameron.

“No lesson is more important to teach children than the lesson to give. We appreciate Lowes Foods giving these children the opportunity tonight to learn the value of giving back,” added Hinson.

Hunter and Johnson presented a check for $20,000 of Surry County taxpayer money to be equally distributed among Foothills Food Pantry, S.E.A.M.S. Ministries, Inc., Tri-County Christian Crisis Ministry and Yokefellow Cooperative Ministry.

The parents also got behind the effort, bringing their children out to Lowes Foods to help out and also helping them load the carts and transport them outside to the waiting truck.

“It’s good for them to learn to help others even though they’re still young,” said Jill Cawley. “It’s a good hands-on experience.”

This year, the food drive is more poignant due to the increased need for assistance, organizers said.

“The need is greater than it’s ever been,” said Saulpaugh. “This is one of the hardest times for all the members of all our communities. This is the largest food drive in the state because we get all 112 stores participating. Everybody’s in the spirit of giving so we’re going to take advantage of that.”

The food drive will continue in the schools as they collect canned goods through the holiday season. There are also pre-packed bags at Lowes Foods which customers can purchase for $5 and leave in a collection box at the store.

Contact Morgan Wall at mwall@mtairynews.com or 719-1929.