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Moffat County High School students will have only a week to reach their goal of filling a horse trailer full of canned food.

It’s a lofty goal, student council president Slade Gurr said, but he thinks the school can collect more than 4,000 cans in the spirit of giving during the holiday season.

Members of Moffat County National FFA Organization and the Moffat County High School Student Council are enlisting the help of students, faculty and staff throughout the district to fill up the trailer with food donations to support KRAI’s holiday food drive.

The food drive begins Mon­day.

Student council secretary Velvet Warne said FFA historically has done the food drive, but the student council stepped in last year to help the FFA when they needed it.

“They needed our support to help bringing food down there and organizing it,” Warne said.

“They didn’t have enough members last year, so we stepped in to help.”

To encourage participation, the food drive will be run as a competition among second hour classes.

The class with the most donations will receive breakfast cooked for them by the student council and FFA members Dec. 11.

“We do it as a competition because if high schools get a reward for something, they’re more likely to participate,” Warne said.

And so far, the reinforcement is working and teachers are upping the stakes.

Heather Sweet’s second-period class began a friendly rivalry with Terri Harjes, who is expecting a large turnout because she’s offering extra credit for donations.

FFA sentinel and MCHS student Nate Moon said helping provide food to families in need was part of the agricultural organization’s mission.

“FFA, that’s what’s it’s all about — feeding America,” Moon said.

“It ties right in to what we’re all about. FFA helps the community in a lot of ways. Just to help everybody that’s in need. Try to help the community as much as we can. This is a big way we can help so we want to take advantage of it.”

Gurr said no matter how the donations come in, it’s important for students to stay involved in their community during difficult economic times.

“We’re all in the same boat here,” Gurr said. “We all have to help each other out. It’s the holidays. It’s not about gifts, it’s all about giving back and helping fellow community members.”

Warne said the food drive was somewhat successful last year but that sometimes high school students don’t think about helping others during the holiday season.

“I think a lot of kids don’t realize the importance of donating,” she said. “Without donating to help people in need, how can you expect people to help you when you’re in need?”