Riverside and the North Pole got a little closer together last week as the scene inside Hauser Junior High’s auditorium reflected Santa’s workshop.

About 150 students worked in assembly line style to arrange the food that was collected by the school and will be donated to the Salvation Army.

Students stacked boxes of cornflakes nearly to the ceiling on the auditorium’s stage while another group of students built a castle out of macaroni and cheese boxes complete with an electric train chugging around it.

Sam Liska, a seventh-grader at Hauser and a Riverside resident, said she decided to get involved with the food drive because it was an opportunity to help those in need.

“Doing this around Christmas time, it makes the people who get it feel good but it also makes me feel good, too,” Sam said.

Cuyler Berwanger, organizer of the food drive and educational consultant for the school, said Hauser is the largest collector of food for a school of its size in Illinois.

Over the past 36 years, Hauser students have collected more than 1 million food items.
Berwanger said this year the school will probably end up with about 66,000 canned food goods, which is valued at about $30,000.

The Salvation Army trucks arrived at Hauser Thursday  afternoon to load up the thousands of canned and dry food goods and they will distribute the items to those in need.