Students, parents and staff from Sunset Hill School arrive at Lawrence Community Shelter on Eighth Street after marching from Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vt., to deliver canned goods to the shelter. The event was part of a community project in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.

Sunset Hill School sixth-grader Kahler Wiebe beamed with pride Saturday morning in front of the Lawrence Community Shelter, 214 W. 10th St.

Kahler, the school’s student council president, helped organize the day’s Homeless Shelter March in honor of the upcoming Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

“I’m very happy with Sunset Hill,” Kahler said of the student-organized project that included food donations to the shelter.

Dozens of students and their parents carried canned and boxed foods during the march from Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vt., to the shelter.

“We had a goal to fill up a whole cart” with food, Kahler said. “We actually overfilled it.”

Fellow event organizer Olivia Wilhelm, a fourth-grader, said the students decided on the march after their principal, Chris Bay, asked the school to come up with an idea to honor Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

When asked why they chose a food drive, Olivia had a fairly straightforward and simple rationale.

“Because they don’t have homes and need food,” she said.

Bay said he was impressed with the students’ efforts.

“We have a wonderful school community,” he said.

Bay spent some time talking to a shelter volunteer, asking about homelessness locally and what the community could do to help.

Bay said he hopes events such as the march inspire and encourage students to take “ownership” of social problems in Lawrence.

“One of the values we have is … taking care of our community,” he said.