Two young girls were inspired in reading class to collect food to give to those in need.

Hannah Neighbors and Ryleigh Skaggs are best friends who knew they had to make a difference.

"Well it first started in reading class when we were reading a story about a boy that collected cans for his school," remembered Ryleigh.

Hannah also recalled that moment, "After we got done with that story Ryleigh and I looked at each other really fast and we like nodded our heads and we were like "We are doing this.""

And they did, first collecting uneaten food from the cafeteria of Cumberland Trace Elementary like apples and oranges, and then expanding their collecting to challenging their schoolmates to a canned food drive.

The winning class earned a smoothie party, and the girls collected more than 800 cans of food in exactly one month.

These young ladies chose to donate the food to the Salvation Army in Bowling Green, which feeds over 4,000 people each month.

"They were running low on a lot of things and when we went there the first time to take some food that we collected they were really thankful for it and it felt really good," said Hannah.

Principal Mary Evans said these Cumberland Trace students did a great job in their endeavor, "They are very outstanding young ladies who took great initiative to start a project that will help lots of people so they are very deserving of being called Hometown Heroes."

For collecting food for the Salvation Army, we honor Hannah Neighbors and Ryleigh Skaggs as Hometown Heroes.