As the school year comes to an end, students are taking action on the emails they have received reminding them about their library fees. Whether a usual visitor at the library or only go to study for finals, the big brown box in the front desk is something that can’t be miss when walking in. Moffett Library is hosting their annual canned food drive, Food for Fines, where students can donate canned food items to  pay off their library fees. Students can donate one can to pay $1 or three cans to pay off $5.

According to Circulation Department Manager Jason Brezina, the canned food drive has been hosted every year since he started working at Moffett Library in 2005.

“We do it during national library week, and we usually do it every spring,” Brezina said.

The canned food drive started  April 9 and will continue until the first week of May. Brezina said there’s not a set date on when it will end, but it depends on the amount of canned food they receive.

“If we don’t have very much, then we will usually expand it [the dates]. Most people don’t realize they have fines,” he said.

According to Brezina, in the first couple of years students donated a lot of cans, but the amount has decreased over time because there have been less late fees.

“The computer system now sends out notices to people, so we don’t have as many late fees as we used to. So people don’t really take advantage of it until it’s a last minute thing,” Brezina said.

Based on the previous school years, Brezina said that students tend to wait until the end of the food drive to turn their cans in. There has been a few cans of food that have been turned in, but there are only about 20 items in the box.

Last school year, Brezina said they received about 265 pounds of food. Although he hopes to have at least 250 pounds of donations this year,  their overall goal is to get students to participate.

After Food for Fines is over, the canned food is delivered and donated to Wichita Falls Area Food Bank in hopes to help fight hunger locally.

“It’s good for the community. With the food bank being short of donations and food, it’s just a good thing to do,” Brezina said.

Brezina said he encourages students to donate even if they do not have fees they need to pay off and thinks getting the word out to others will help with donations.

Jennifer Omage, student assistant, said having the drive at Moffett Library is a good idea because many students go there and it helps raise awareness about it.

“I think it’s a good way for people to give back to those who don’t have much,” Omage said.

 Natalie Ragland, biology pre-med sophomore, and Adanna Okoya, geology sophomore, said they had no idea that the food drive was taking place, but think students should become aware of it.