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Clark Memorial Elementary School students are participating in a kindness gesture for the community through a cereal food drive.

The Pre-K through fifth-grade student body, along with faculty and staff, are conducting the drive, and all the boxes will be donated to local food banks in the Franklin County area.

School counselor Andrea Parsons and English-as-a-second-language teacher Sarah Curtis are working hard to organize the event while also providing valuable teaching moments for the students.

Parsons said she found inspiration for a community-outreach school project from previous educational experiences and through CBS News’ Steve Hartman’s Kindness 101 video lessons.

The series is intended to help teach children the importance of empathy, friendship, courage and selflessness. These are qualities all humans can benefit from reviewing, especially starting at the elementary-school level.

The Clark Memorial student council has made the cereal drive into a fun, grade-level competition with each class trying to bring in as many boxes as possible.

The goal of the drive is to produce 750 cereal boxes by Feb. 17, which is National Random Acts of Kindness Day.

The community is encouraged to take part if they wish. Unopened cereal boxes can be brought into the front office of Clark Memorial at any time prior to Feb. 17 to help the students meet or surpass their goal.

“On the 17th, the boxes will be lined throughout our halls, front to back, for a domino effect,” Parsons said.

The student council has been keeping a daily count of boxes and exceeded half of its goal on Jan. 27.

Students from Franklin County High School have volunteered to aid in distributing the boxes to the local food banks.

Clark Memorial is asking residents to support its cause by watching the drive’s ongoing progress on Facebook.