MARIETTA - An unassuming trailer behind Birney Elementary School in south Marietta serves as a food pantry, thanks to volunteers from a nearby church.

With nearly 78 percent of Birney's students receiving free and reduced lunch, Vinings Lake Church volunteers wanted to help underpriviledged families in these tough economic times. Last spring, volunteer Rhonda Smith, who adamantly clips coupons and stocks up on nonperishable items when they're on sale, realized she had a surplus of food and asked Birney's Principal Rattana Inthirathvongsy about starting up a food pantry for the school's needy families.

Inthirathvongsy said Vinings Lake Church is an official partner in education with the school and has done several projects with volunteers in the past few years.

"We're kind of like their pilot school," Inthirathvongsy said. "And the goal, they know that we have a lot of schools in Cobb County that service populations that are in economic distress, and they wanted to do something locally with the school that could impact families in need."

The school and church volunteers established Save It Forward, a program, in which families in need could apply to the school's counselors and become eligible to receive a box of nonperishable items, canned goods, toiletries and household cleaning items each month.

What started as a stockpile of canned goods, household items and toiletries in Smith's Woodstock home, quickly grew to a trailer full of essential goods for the families at Birney.

"I had been doing it for myself for a long time," Smith said of her collection of canned foods. "I had more stuff than my family would ever need, so I started stockpiling in my dining room, knowing that God was calling me to do something with this. I just didn't know what."

During the summer, Vinings Lake Church's kids camp held a food drive, where 1,400 items were collected, Smith said. Word of mouth also spread throughout the church community and Smith's dining-room stash continued to grow. In late July, the volunteers put up shelving in the trailer and began hauling the food over to the school. Smith said it took her packed Ford Expedition and a U-Haul trailer to transport all of the goods.

In early August, the school announced the Save It Forward project and began collecting applications from parents who needed help. Inthirathvongsy and several school counselors went through the applications and identified 15 families for the program's first round of donations. Although 20 families applied, Inthirathvongsy some only needed one-time help with things such as uniforms, which are required at the school. The goal of the program is to help 50 families by the end of the school year in May, Inthirathvongsy said.

The principal's goal is to help every family who needs it and to erase the stigma of a handout.

"We're not going to be the quote-unquote police on this," Inthirathvongsy said. "If families come to us with a need, we're going to take their word on it and help out as much as we can ... We're trying to promote it in a way where the stigma isn't as great attached to it - because there is a stigma attached to receiving assistance in this manner - but we're trying to talk it up as a positive thing and how the church can give back to the community and how the school can help as well."

Last week, the school and church volunteers kicked off the project by inviting the selected families to pick up their boxes at the trailer. Each box was made for a family of four people and included more than 50 items, including cereal, canned vegetables and fruit, macaroni and cheese, peanut butter and jelly, laundry detergent, dish soap, toilet paper, paper towels, toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo and conditioner and baby items, if needed.

About six Vinings Lake Church volunteers came to hand out the boxes. The church and the school plan to hold another food drive in November to restock the trailer's food supply.

Catzia Hooker, whose daughter is a second grader at Birney, came to pick up a box Thursday and said the help was much needed. Hooker found out about Save it Forward when she came for her daughter's Meet and Greet before school started in August.

"It's a blessing," Hooker said.

Inthirathvongsy praised the dedication of Smith and the hard work of his staff as well as the Vinings Lake volunteers.

"Overall, it's just a fantastic program," Inthirathvongsy said. "I'm glad they chose us to kind of be the guinea pigs, because I'm one for trying something that is new, innovative and creative. The goal is to serve 50 families, not just during the traditional giving times - Thanksgiving and Christmas - but from day one until the end of the school year."