BROWNSTOWN — Members of a Brownstown youth ministry helped stock an empty food pantry Friday afternoon by filling its shelves with canned goods and nonperishable items.

Brownstown Christian Church Early Learning Ministry started a Love Thy Neighbor project that encouraged students to bring in food donations throughout the month of February.

Classrooms competed against each other to see which one could give the most, and an ice cream party was promised as a reward for the class that brought in the most items.

Every class exceeded expectations and collected more than 100 items, which means each class will receive an ice cream party.

More than 1,000 food items were donated through the project and brought to the Shed for You community building in a town parking lot along West Walnut Street in Brownstown.

Stefani Romilus, a preschool teacher for the ministry, said every single donation came from students who brought them into their classrooms.

“That meant from our infant babies bringing them in all the way up to our school-aged, after-school program kids,” Romilus said.

She said it was her hope that families could be blessed by the donated food.

Pre-K student Maggie Feathers helped stock the Shed for You with her brother, Leo, who’s in fourth grade, and her parents, Matt and Megan Feathers.

Feathers said it was “really, really fun” to bring food donations to her classroom, and she liked helping those in need.

“We collect stuff all together, then we all put it in a box and then we taped it up,” she said.

Leo Feathers was excited to help stock the food pantry, and it made him feel good to give back to others in the community.

Matt Feathers said he feels the Shed for You pantry is a great asset to Brownstown.

“If somebody is in need of something, a family can come over here and grab something,” he said. “There’s no judgment. You come in and drop it (items) off or you come in and you can take.”

Megan Feathers said her family wanted to help out in any way it could.

“We love our little community,” she said.

Joshua Rogers, 19, said he graduated from high school last year but came by the food pantry on Friday to help unload food. He praised the ministry for its generous food contributions.

“I know tons of people that need it,” Rogers said. “I went to school with tons of people that needed it. I know there are kids that need it.”

Fourth-grader Kai Romilus said he brought in canned items from his “grammy and poppy’s” house and also from his “nanny and papaw’s” house. He was glad to help others who might need the food he donated.

“It feels very good,” Romilus said. “It makes me very happy to help other people out whenever they really need it the most, and it just warms my heart a lot.”

Alison Moore, also in fourth grade, said she was happier knowing other people will have food they need.

“It feels good because some people don’t have food, and they need food to survive,” she said. “I go to church, and I just like to make people happy.”

Preschoolers Arya Crossman and Kaylee Rigdon said they brought food in almost every day. They said it made them happy when they brought food in, and they look forward to having an ice cream party.

The Shed for You building is open 24/7. It opened in the summer of 2019 after the Brownstown Central High School’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes came up with the idea for the building and raised money toward its construction.

BCC ELM provides faith-based lesson plans to children 1 year old up to pre-K. The ministry also offers child care, preschool and after-school care, according to brownstownchristian.org/elm.