When you think of Halloween you probably think of parties, kids trick or treating, scary movies or maybe the Pillsbury cookies with the ghost or pumpkins on them.

If you’re in the Drama Club you most likely think of trick or treat so kids can eat, or TOTSKCE for short.

“Somewhere close to 30 years ago, (TOTSKCE) started with Wichita schools. It then expanded into the state of Kansas and all of us (drama clubs) in Kansas,” theatre teacher Richard Shultz said.

Every year the club goes out on Halloween and collects canned food or non-perishable foods from various neighborhoods in the Derby area to donate to the Kansas Food Bank in Wichita. The project is led by the sophomore representative for that year.

The club collected 500-600 pounds of food each year on Halloween before Covid-19 shut it down for two years. The Wichita-area schools, including Derby, Campus, Andover and Rose Hill, collect 10,000-11,000 

“When Covid hit, it just locked it down and we got nothing. We are building back,” Shultz said.

The club creates flyers and passes them out to houses – then collects the food on Halloween. 

This year the plan is a little different.

“With a larger workforce for the project, there’s more available ground to cover,” Drama Club sophomore representative Cole Gnapp said. “Once I get a gauge, numerically, as to the amount of people that are going to attend TOTSKCE, I’m going to start advertising it and routing it.”

On Halloween night, members will get their routes for pickup.

“I really enjoy the reason we do it, giving food to kids. There are so many people who can’t eat and live very, very unhealthy lives, so I enjoy having the ability to make their lives a bit easier,” drama club member Brooklyn Bolain said.

After the cans are collected, Shultz takes them to the food bank in downtown Wichita. The food bank packs the cans away and sends them to over 82 different counties in Kansas where they will be distributed to food pantries for people in need.