Twenty-two Auburn schools participated in the fifth annual All-Schools Food Drive. For 10 days – from Feb. 23 to March 6 – Auburn schools collected canned foods and cash donations for needy families and people in the community.

The drive collected 56,568 pounds of food, which equals 29.34 pounds of food per student, and $18,869.30 was donated. The total cash donation was $11,100 more than last year’s total donations.

All the food and proceeds were donated to the Auburn Food Bank and the Algona/Pacific Food Bank.

“The faithfulness of the Auburn School District Superintendent Kip Herren and Linda Cowan, before him; the administrators; the teachers; the awesome students and their parents is what makes this a huge success,” said Debbie Christian, executive director of the Auburn Food Bank. “Every pound and every dollar also will be added to the totals for the Feinstein Challenge – where millionaire Alan Shawn Feinstein splits a million dollars between participating food banks all across the nation.”

ALL-SCHOOL FOOD DRIVE SCOREBOARD

The schools to bring in the most food at the elementary, middle and high school levels were:

• Evergreen Heights Elementary School: 2,347 pounds, $1,943.94 cash donations

• Olympic Middle School: 5,526 pounds, $841.75 cash donations

• Auburn Mountainview High School: 7,742 pounds, $2,217.21 cash donations

Each of these three schools will receive a trophy and be recognized at the Auburn Food Bank’s annual Harvest Breakfast in the fall.

Runners-up:

• Ilalko Elementary School: 11.55 pounds per student

• Mt. Baker Middle School: 6.58 pounds per student

• Auburn High School: 2.63 pounds per student

Last year’s totals: 65,529 pounds, $7,705.51 cash (Mountainview High School, Olympic Middle School and Hazelwood Elementary were the category winners).