Forget candy on the scariest night of the year; students from several Tri-Cities schools will be collecting food on Halloween for a good cause.

The "Halloween for Hunger" initiative, to help alleviate hunger in the community, kicked off earlier this month.

Riverside Secondary's Green Shirts and Rapid Change members (all student volunteer groups) are coordinating the event.

Working with students from other southside schools (Central, Castle Park, Mary Hill, Kilmer and Hazel Trembath elementaries and Citadel and Pitt River middle schools), students will be collecting non-perishable food items rather than Halloween treats for donation to the SHARE food bank.

Food bank donations through in-school promotions and events, as well as door-to-door in the community, are also planned.

Last year, the fundraiser managed to collect more than 6,600 pounds of food for SHARE, and organizers are hoping to beat that amount this year.

CULINARY CONSCIENCE

Riverside Secondary is going green.

The school's home economics and culinary arts areas are now composting food scraps,

while food-scrap bins will soon be brought to the cafeteria and hallways. Riverside is also working with the City of Port Coquitlam to reduce waste as it moves to single-stream recycling in the school to accommodate plastics, metals and other recyclable items.

MOODY MIDDLE SETS RECORD

Moody Middle School can add its name to the record books.

On Oct. 12, the entire student body of 750 took part in a Canada-wide event to establish a world record for the largest practical science lesson at multiple locations.

The Science.gc.ca team and its partners organized this record-setting event, which also launched the 2012 National Science and Technology Week.

Several thousand students, young Canadians, teachers and community leaders participated in their communities across the country.

A school press release noted a new world record would be an unforgettable way to showcase the fun of learning about science - and an ideal opportunity to encourage young Canadians to consider careers in science and technology.

CHOCOLATE SALE GOES FAIR TRADE

Everyone loves chocolate, and it tastes even better when it's made in a fair way.

As part of Hope Lutheran Christian School's fundraising efforts this fall, students will sell chocolates to raise money to improve and support their academic and extra-curricular studies.

But this year the Parent Teacher League (PTL) has agreed to sell only chocolates that are fair trade certified.

Rachel Goetz, a PTL representative, noted 43 per cent of the world's cocoa comes from the Ivory Coast region of West Africa.

There have been ongoing reports of child slavery on cocoa plantations in this region. Furthermore, hundreds of thousands of West African children (between the ages of nine and 12) work in hazardous conditions on cocoa farms.

The school has chosen to sell Camino chocolates for its fundraiser. The company is based in Ottawa and has an educational toolkit available on its website that gives lesson plans and activities to help teach classes about the importance of fair trade.

HOPE LUTHERAN GETS ACCREDITATION

Hope Lutheran Christian School recently entered into a process to become an accredited school through the National Lutheran School Accreditation (NLSA) program.

After a lengthy review and evaluation, the school has met these standards, and has been recommended for accreditation.

It becomes one of a select number of schools outside of the U.S. to have received this standing. There is also one in Hong Kong, one in Vietnam and one in Calgary.

NLSA is a self-study and review process that is conducted by the school, and then extensively reviewed by an outside team of administrators and professors from around Canada and the U.S.

In this process, 11 different areas are evaluated, including mission and vision, administration, classroom procedures, curriculum development and enhancement.

If the school meets the standards outlined in these areas, it is recommended for accreditation.

. Do you have an education-related item you'd like readers to know about? Send details to education reporter Jeremy Deutsch at jdeutsch@ thenownews.com.