Local schools are contributing big.

Austin High School collected 12,000 pounds of food for Channel One food bank, in a drive that forced Principal Brad Bergstrom out of his office (where food was stored), before the end of last week. Tuesday, Neveln was awarded by Hy-Vee for its food drive efforts, after collecting more than any other participating school.

All Austin Public Schools, other than AHS, which was in another drive, participated.

“You helped out a great cause,” Hy-Vee manager Todd Hepler told Neveln students.

Hepler presented the elementary school with a SMART Board on behalf of HyVee Tuesday.

Valued at more than $3000, the interactive white board allows teachers to save and print graphs, utilize three-dimensional graphics, pull up information from the Internet and much more — all by touching the screen.

Neveln collected 3000 food items, which is about seven and a half items per student, Neveln Principal Dewey Schara said. The runner-up school collected 2 and a half items per student.

The SMART board will be installed in Karla Carroll’s third-grade classroom because her students won the in-school contest, contributing more than 490 pounds of food.

Hepler said that more than 8000 pounds were collected in total, and it will all be given to the local Salvation Army.

“When you decided we were going to win the food drive, we succeeded,” Schara told his students.

Austin High School’s donations were also given to the local Salvation Army. The school was part of a regional food drive competition between more than 20 high schools.

It was a collaborative effort between AHS’s Chemical Health Awareness Initiative, National Honor Society and student council.

AHS won first place in the category for area large high schools.

Hepler awarded another SMART Board to Austin Catholic Elementary School Wednesday morning. The school won Hy-Vee’s “SMART Points” contest.

For every $20 of P&G brand products purchased at Hy-Vee from Sept. 1 to Oct. 31, customers could donate 100 SMART Points to the school of their choice.

Austin Catholic Elementary School is one of 125 grand prize winners nationwide.