Citizens throughout Manhattan found paper bags on their front step with a note attached during the month of September.

The note instructed people to put canned goods in the bags and leave them outside to be picked up by Cats for Cans, a student-run program dedicated to helping the Flint Hills Breadbasket.

Larry Mitchell, freshman in political science, was one of the hundreds of students in Introduction to Leadership Studies classes involved in the Cats for Cans community service project. Mitchell approached Hy-Vee, where he has been employed since June, to see if they would be willing to assist the project.

"I went up there, introduced myself and asked if they'd like to help," Mitchell said.

Hy-Vee responded by donating 500 paper bags to Cats for Cans to be used for collecting canned goods from the community and provided a booth for them to accept donations from shoppers at the store on Sept. 29.

"Each year we do this, I'm constantly reminded of how talented our students are," said Mike Finnegan, instructor in leadership studies.

Finnegan said each year the program tries to be more successful in collecting food for the Breadbasket and, so far, has always managed to top the year before.

In 2006, Cats for Cans collected 6,500 pounds of food. By 2008, the group brought that number to more than 11,000 pounds. This year, 54 class leaders were put in charge of groups of 10 to 13 students.

Color-coded maps and other methods were used to organize each group to canvas a different neighborhood and collect as many donations as possible.

So far this year, students have succeeded in bringing more than 9,000 pounds of food to the Breadbasket.

"Leadership studies has been great," said Natascha Phillip, executive director of the Breadbasket. "Every bit counts."

Phillip said donations are especially needed this year. The Associated Press recently determined that Riley County is the least economically stressed county in the United States.

Despite this, Phillip said that donations have gone down this year and the number of people asking the Breadbasket for assistance has doubled, resulting in dire consequences for the organization. This is the first year in the Breadbasket's history that it is operating at a deficit.

"It's getting frightening," Phillip said.

For those who missed the collection drive, there will be K-State student athletes accepting donations of canned goods at Snyder Family Stadium at the homecoming game on Oct. 24.

Phillip said that, since one can typically weighs about a pound, if each person who attended the game brought one can, students could potentially collect about 40,000 pounds of food.