New Richmond High School math teacher Will Shoemaker (standing center) and his class are pictured with some of the 5906 food items they collected for the New Richmond Food Pantry.
New Richmond Exempted Village School District students and staff were in a giving mood this holiday season resulting in record donation of 26,891 food items to the New Richmond Village Pantry.

New Richmond High School crushed its previous record in leading district schools in giving.

“I want to thank each of you for all that you did to make this the best food drive ever,” said Jim Robinson, NRHS food drive chairman. “We ended with a total of 14,920 items and collected $1590.49. We crushed the previous record set last year of 12,252.”

New Richmond Middle School collected 6,668 items, followed by Locust Corner Elementary with 2527, New Richmond Elementary with 1559 and Monroe Elementary with 1217, all exceeding their goals. Locust Corner also raised $175 in donations for the Food Pantry.

Will Shoemaker’s New Richmond High School math class was the district leader with 5,906 items donated including enough Ramen noodles to fill a pickup truck.

“Hopefully our efforts helped some families during the Christmas season,” said Robinson.

The Food Pantry estimates that Monroe Elementary’s donation along helped 180 households and approximately 275 children.