MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Local students stepped up for their community over at Hunger Task Force Thursday, May 21. 

As part of the annual Mitzvah Day, fifth, sixth, and seventh-grade students from Milwaukee Jewish Day School took part in a food sort. 

The students helped sort hundreds of pounds of donated food that will be distributed to Hunger Task Force's network of pantries and shelters. 

"We need to teach them from the get-go, and sometimes that means getting in school and learning," and we do that through learning Jewish texts and learning history, and social studies, and literature, and all of that good stuff," Rabbi Joshua Sherman said. "But there's also no replacement to really rolling up your sleeves and doing the real work that's really going to benefit people in your community, and we're hoping to model that for them and encourage them to keep doing that with their families at home, too."

Thursday's Mitzvah Day is part of the greater Jewish Heritage Month, recognized every May.