A new way to give back is debuting Friday at the Leadership Lawrence Class of 2009 graduation ceremony.

It’s called the Lawrence Virtual Food Bank, and it will make donating to Lawrence’s food pantries instantaneous. Rather than lugging groceries from the store to the nearest pantry, you can visit the Web site and make cash donations.

Oliver Minnis, a member of the class, said the online donations would be beneficial to the pantries.

“The pantries are able to use this money — a lot of times — at pennies on the dollar to purchase food that they really need. We don’t worry about getting too much of one certain item,” Minnis said.

The Leadership Lawrence commencement ceremony is at 7:30 a.m. Friday at Alvamar Country Club.