For the third consecutive year, Hayden Dinger, an eighth grade student at St. Bede School in La Cañada, will be running his canned tuna drive that he calls Love and Fishes. He started the campaign when he learned that roughly 1,200 people in his hometown of Glendale went to bed hungry each night and of that number 200 are children. After speaking with the captain at the Salvation Army, Hayden learned that a can of tuna was enough protein to feed a family of four. He set out on a mission to collect 1,000 cans of tuna for the Salvation Army Food Pantry during the Christian season of Lent. Lent began on March 5 and ends on Easter Sunday.

This year, with the help of Facebook, he has two new drop off locations: Prudential Real Estate in La Cañada and WundaBar in Montrose along with his father’s office Crescenta Valley Insurance and his school. He was also informed that three brothers in the state of Washington saw the post on Facebook and are going to collect cans for their local food pantry, too.

When asked about the news of his idea spreading, Hayden responded proudly, “That’s great!”

Hayden will be delivering the cans to the annual Hoop Heroes basketball game on Sunday, April 6 at Glendale High School from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. The Glendale Police Dept. will play the Glendale Fire Dept. in a basketball game with the proceeds benefiting the underserved youth in the Glendale community. Prior to that game, the Rotary Club takes on the Kiwanis Club. It is great family fun … and only $5 a ticket.