(L. to r.) City Councilmember Peter Vallone Jr., I.S. 141 Principal Miranda Pavlou, WPIX 11 Weatherman Irv “Mr. G” Gikofsky, and Assistant Principal Vanessa Williams; front, Miranda Pacheco, Miar Elaskandrany and Eleni Georgiadis. Photo Jason D. Antos Students of I.S. 141 in Long Island City collected more than 29,482 cans of food and non-perishable items for City Harvest’s “Kids Can Help Week”.

City Councilmember Peter Vallone Jr. (DLong Island City), along with WPIX 11 News Weatherman Irv “Mr. G” Gikofsky came to lend a helping hand on December 7. The brigade of students carried boxes containing food, some heavier than themselves, out to the group of waiting trucks.

“This sure is hard work,” Mr. G said, commenting on the weight of the boxes.

The food was then delivered to one of 600 community food programs serviced by City Harvest.

“City Harvest is an important program,” Vallone said. “It teaches children in our schools and across the city the value of helping others.”

As part of the 27th annual Daily News’ “Readers Care to Feed the Hungry” food drive, the program allows schools to participate in collecting food for 1.5 million New Yorkers living in poverty.

In 2008, the DNRC Food Drive raised 938,000 pounds of food. That same year, 232 schools participated in the program and helped raise 228,000 pounds of food. The students at I.S. 141 tied with I.S. 34 in Staten Island— both raised 14,000 pounds of food. This year I.S. 141 hopes to surpass that amount to become the lead donating school in the city.

Founded in 1982 by a group of concerned New Yorkers after witnessing restaurants discarding still edible food, City Harvest plans to receive more than 25 million pounds of food this year alone. Food can be donated by just about anyone and even noted gourmet restaurants in Manhattan have joined the cause. Noted culinary celebrities such as Rachael Ray and Martha Stewart have also offered their help in providing quality food for the city’s poor.

Canned goods can be donated to any city firehouse, police precinct, Modell’s Sporting Goods store or the Daily News building at 450 West 33rd St., Manhattan.

Sponsored by FDNY, NYPD, the city Department of Education, Univision, 77 WABC, 1050 ESPN, PIX 11 and Modell’s Sporting Goods, the DNRC Food Drive will run until Jan. 9, 2010.

For more information about running a food drive, call Food Sourcing Coordinator Racine Rodriguez, at 917-351-8711 or e-mail rrodriguez@ cityharvest.org.—Jason D. Antos