Walk for Food raises $8,000 for Flagler County food pantry

Dottie Colletta was thrilled to see more students than previous years at the fourth-annual Walk for Food. The event benefits Grace Community Food Pantry and the Fed by Grace Backpack program, which provides food for homeless students when they're not in school.

"From elementary school, middle school and high school, I'm going to say we had about 250 people today, so it was really good," said Colettea, the event coordinator.

Including fundraising leading up to the event on Saturday, March 2, about $8,000 was raised and 720 pounds of food were collected, Colletta said.

This year, students were encouraged to bring a canned good or $1 to participate in the walk at Indian Trails Middle School. Most brought canned foods to the event and each school also collected nonperishables throughout the year. The first place schools for largest number of food collections were Belle Terre Elementary School, Indian Trails Middle School and Matanzas High School.

The Leo Club from Flagler Palm Coast High School and the Key Club from MHS were present at the event to help entertain the younger kids with games.

After walking around the track at ITMS, festivities including a raffle auction took place inside the school's cafeteria. Christian Studer, a seventh-grader at ITMS, performed a rap, as well. 

"I'm very proud of our kids," ITMS Principal Paul Peacock said. "That just means that our kids are modeling what our big three is. ... Our kids are awesome. So, I'm proud of them; I'm like a proud daddy."

The Mustangs' big three motto is: do your best, do what's right and treat others the way you want to be treated.

Visit http://gracecommunityfoodpantry.com.