The Hungry Heart Soup Kitchen and the Central Kansas Dream Center had some extra help on Friday as Ellinwood eighth-grade students donated their time to help out wherever they were needed and to help spread some holiday cheer.

“The students are very pleased to be helping out the soup kitchen and the Dream Center today,” Ellinwood teacher Melissa Jacobs said. “All the students that I ask jumped right in and said yes. That means so much to me as a teacher that these students are so willing to donate their time to help other, and spread some holiday cheer.”

The students did a variety of jobs, not only in the soup kitchen but also at the Central Kansas Dream Center. They cooked, cleaned and set up a room for a Christmas party for the residents at the Dream Center.

They also saved meat after a refrigerator and a freezer went out at the soup kitchen. The volunteers transferred the meat to an operating cooler.

The students also prepared and cooked the Christmas lunch at the soup kitchen for the hungry visitors. They cooked ham, corn and all the fixings that would go with a Christmas dinner. 

“The soup kitchen and Dream Center are run by volunteers,” said Central Kansas Dream Center Director Kimberly Becker. “They are our heartbeat at the center. So having these students here today is amazing.

“This is our third group of students volunteering their time at the center and soup kitchen,” Becker said. “This is the first time we had these students from Ellinwood and it a great honor to have them with us today.”