JOHNSTON – The American Kem Tae Do martial arts school in Johnston has announced its first "Kick For Hunger" Food Drive, which will run now through October 24th.

The school will work in conjunction with local groups Women In Unity and Edgefield County Churches Helping Others to collect canned goods and dry goods for local distribution in the Johnston-Edgefield-Trenton-Saluda area beginning in November.

Planned collection dates for the canned goods and dry goods are Thursday, October 8th, and Thursday, October 15th , from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday, October 24th from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. The Saturday collection date will also serve as an open house for the school.

“With the Kick for Hunger we would like for folks to bring in canned goods and dry goods to distribute here locally in the area,” said American Kem Tae Do sensei Terry Taylor. “We’ll be working with Women In Unity and ECCHO on the drive and helping each other with it.”

Collection dates are planned for October, but the school is already accepting donations.

“People can go ahead and start bringing in food now in September, and we hope to start distributing the food in early November,” Taylor added. “If people don’t want to bring in cans they can just donate money and we’ll buy the cans ourselves, but all the food will be distributed county-wide and maybe some in the Saluda area. Everything will be staying local right here in the community.”

Taylor said he’d been pondering the idea of a food drive as a way to expand the school’s mission outreach programs.

“I’ve had it in my mind for a while,” he said. “We were just trying to find the right people to work with. We have different programs going on through the year where we like to do things like this where it’s more of a mission outreach program than something focused only on the school. We’d also like to work on a Christmas program as well. We’ll be distributing together (with WIU and ECCHO) and helping each other with what we need.”

Taylor said his students have already started working on the project in earnest.

“That’s what our outreach programs are about helping others, and it’s kind of a separate thing from the school where we are just reaching out to the community,” he said. “The students are working hard right now, working with their friends and churches to come together and help us out. We’re just trying to let everyone know what we’re trying to do.”

In addition to the planned collection dates, donations will be accepted at the school (located across from the library in Johnston) on Monday and Thursday evenings from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

“We’re hoping to get the community really involved in this,” he added.