McCutcheon football players give back

LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - One Lafayette area high school football team tackled a new project this season involving giving back to the community.

The McCutcheon High School cafeteria is where the Maverick students usually take a break to chow down on meals, but Thursday, they were hard at work preparing them.

Filling, stacking and packing bag after bag with food to donate, the Maverick football team not only helped raise the money to buy the food, but they even helped with the distribution process.

"Helping plan this was something new for me, so it was nice to the team come together and be excited about it and be excited about doing this tonight and raising money for it," Senior Team Manager Mel Plantenga said.

The team's hard work and money raised went to help the Kids Against Hunger Program.

The $900 raised was enough money to make 625 kits. That will make 4,500 meals!    

It's an accomplishment head coach Ken Frauhiger said is important for his team and school. Team members said it feels as good as scoring the winning touchdown.

"They are good kids," McCutcheon Football Coach Ken Frauhiger said. "They know how important it is that they help those that can't help themselves. It's very special for us to have the opportunity to do this."

"It's also nice to know you're helping your community and people around the world," Team Senior Captain Kyle Brewer said. "It's a really nice feeling."

Some of the food will go to local food pantries like Food Finders Food Bank in Lafayette and some will help feed hungry families in other countries.